Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate is refusing to get carried away about next season, despite an eight-goal finish to the 2007/8 campaign.The Teessiders manager is preparing to launch his latest recruitment drive confident the foundation for long-term success is in place.

However, having seen his side only secure their Premier League status on the penultimate Saturday of each of his first two seasons in charge, he is adopting a patient approach.

Asked what his target would be, he said: "That's always a difficult one.

"It is easy to sit here and say, 'We want to qualify for Europe' or 'We want to be top 10'.

"There is a good challenge for us because we have only finished in the top 10 twice in 15 years - or it might be longer than that - so that is a great target for us.

"If you get into those sorts of positions or you are competitive in that area of the table early on in the season, then it's a lot easier to push forward from there."

Southgate admitted after seeing his side finally edge over the finishing line this time around with a 2-0 home win over Portsmouth, things would have to change at the club this summer.

That does not mean wholesale changes in personnel - Fabio Rochemback, Gaizka Mendieta and Dong-Gook Lee have all left the club and the manager is still awaiting decisions from keeper Mark Schwarzer and midfielder George Boateng - but rather a shift in emphasis.

The former England international only emerged from the dressing room at the Riverside Stadium two summers ago when he was offered the chance to succeed Steve McClaren.

He acknowledges he now needs to put greater distance between himself and those of the players who are former team-mates, and they will return for pre-season training to a different regime.

Southgate said: "The first year, I had to see whether I wanted to do the job and whether I could do the job, and the second year was firefighting a lot of problems and issues.

"A lot of those issues that came to me will be resolved this summer in how we change the way we work.

"I have needed to have a look at that to see what was working and what has not worked for us, and the way we coach the players, the way we improve the players as individuals needs to change as well.

"It is not just personnel. Even if we had the same group of players we had this season, we could get more out of them."

Boro endured an indifferent start to last season and found themselves playing catch-up for much of the campaign having lost strikers Mark Viduka and, as the transfer window drew to a close, Ayegbeni Yakubu.

An influx of new faces did little to ease cohesion during the early stages, and that ultimately took its toll.

Southgate said: "If you start poorly, it has a magnetic effect, you get dragged towards the area of the table we were in this season.

"We need to start the season well, and that means, if we can, getting the players we want in early, but making sure we get the pre-season period right.

"I know in terms of how we work physically on the training ground with the players, with it being the third year of having tried different things in pre-season, I know we will be a lot more organised and a lot fitter going into the start of the season.

"We need to get players on the field more regularly. We didn't get anywhere near a full team for the majority of the season, and I believe that's something we can affect.

"I don't think it is all just down to bad luck with injuries."

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