MIDDLESBROUGH remain determined to hold on to Marcus Tavernier, despite Nottingham Forest having become the latest club to firm up their interest in the midfielder.

Forest officials have made a formal inquiry for Tavernier, and are willing to pay around £10m for Tavernier as they look to strengthen ahead of their return to the Premier League.

Bournemouth held similar discussions earlier in the summer, and are also understood to value Tavernier at around £10m.

Boro’s recruitment team always expected the 23-year-old to attract interest ahead of the transfer deadline, but Chris Wilder is understandably reluctant to lose one of his key performers from last season.

Tavernier featured in 44 of Boro’s 46 league matches last term, scoring five goals, and is an integral part of Wilder’s plans for the forthcoming season. He is set to compete with Jonny Howson, Matt Crooks and Riley McGree for a place in Boro’s three-man central midfield, with his versatility and ability to fill a number of different roles, including wing-back, making him an especially valuable asset.

With Djed Spence’s move to Tottenham having been finalised at the end of last week, and with Boro set to receive around £15m as an up-front payment for the wing-back, the Teessiders do not have a financial need to sell Tavernier.

Wilder has always accepted that every player has their price, but with Steve Gibson determined to reinvest the bulk of the money received for Spence into attacking reinforcements, the Boro hierarchy are focused on trying to improve the current squad rather than dismantle it.

The Teessiders have returned from their training camp in Portugal, which ended in a 3-0 friendly defeat to Braga on Friday night, with Wilder continuing to work closely with head of football Kieran Scott and chief executive Neil Bausor in an attempt to push through some deals.

“I’m confident that we will add players over the next week to ten days because we have to,” admitted Wilder. “The season starts in two weeks’ time. We all know that and we will do, and we will have better players through the door at the club and they will make us stronger.

“Josh Coburn isn’t going to play 46 games in the Championship for us. We all know that - I know that, the owner knows that, Kieran knows that and Neil knows that. We know we’ve got to go and get players in because we’ve only got 13 or 14 senior players. We get on with it, and we all appreciate the situation and what’s going off, but it’s full steam ahead now.

“It’s going to be a big week now for us to bring players in to bolster and support the group. We’ve got a good core group of players here, but everybody knows, it’s not a strong enough group to go for it next year, so that is the challenge in the next two weeks to bring those players in.

“We might have to be realistic because of the slow market and how difficult it is to bring players in. But we have to keep working at it, be patient with it and keep doing as much work as we can on the training pitch as much as we have to in terms of getting those players in.”

Viktor Gyokeres remains a leading attacking target, but Coventry City continue to quote what Boro regard to be an inflated attacking price for the Sweden international.

The arrival of goalkeeper Zack Steffen will be confirmed shortly, with the American having successfully passed a medical ahead of a season-long loan from Manchester City.

“When we looked at it when we first came in, we knew we had to improve the goalkeeping department,” said Wilder. “We’ve brought in Liam Roberts who is going to prove a really good acquisition for us, and now we’re adding Zack Steffen who recently just signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with Man City. Man City don’t hand out four-and-a-half-year contracts if they don’t think anything of them.

“Everyone knows his situation, he needed to play because of the World CupHe had an agreement with Man City, he could have easily stayed there and sat comfortably as their number two, but he wanted to go out and he’s agreed to come here. I think it’s a big coup for us and so I’m delighted to be bringing him in.”