Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick ready to rebuff January interest in key players

The former Manchester United interim boss faces one of the toughest tests of his tenure at Boro as they travel to league leaders Burnley this afternoon.

Middlesbrough have moved into 12th with four wins from their last five league games, as they returned to action last weekend with a dramatic 2-1 win over Luton Town at the Riverside Stadium. Carrick’s side were one place above the relegation zone at the end of October but a fine run of form has propelled them into the top half and the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder wants to make sure he keeps a hold of his key players in next month’s transfer window.

“We’ve done well and so we want to push to keep improving. But when you’re doing well that can attract other types of attention,” replied Carrick when asked about the importance of keeping key players.

"That’s just how it is and from my perspective, I love to see our lads playing well. That might mean people are looking at them, but of course we want to keep our best players.

"In the position we are in a league like this, we’re looking forward, we want to improve and we want to keep getting better. And obviously to do that we want to keep our better players.”

On the incomings front, Middlesbrough plan to be active in the January market.

Carrick added: “We’ve got an idea of what we’d like to do. It’s obviously not as easy in practice as just writing things down on a piece of paper and then it’s done, but we go into January with a plan. We want to keep improving as a football club and as a team as well. That’s our job to do that.”