Strachan is happy to splash the cash

Aug 7 2010 by James Hunter, The Journal

GORDON STRACHAN admits Middlesbrough have ‘gone out on a limb’ by spending more than £5m on this season’s promotion push.

Boro kick off their Championship campaign against Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town at the Riverside today, and Strachan knows chairman Steve Gibson will be looking for a big improvement on last season’s 11th-place finish.

Gibson’s investment has seen Boro strengthen their squad significantly over the summer, with six new players and the possibility of a seventh arriving if they can strike a deal for Sunderland centre-back Matt Kilgallon.

Boro have been installed as pre-season favourites to win the Championship.

While Strachan pays no attention to the bookies’ predictions, he says the club has had to gamble by spending big in a bid to win promotion before their parachute payments come to an end next summer.

“I have been very happy with the signings I have made and the club have gone out on a bit of a limb to allow me to do them,” said the former Celtic boss (pictured below).

“The chairman and chief executive Keith Lamb have done very well for me.

“I could not have told you we were favourites – I have never picked up a paper or anything like that – but the bookies are not normally too far away so we must have been doing something right in pre-season.

“Pre-season is basically just propaganda.

“The reality is the character of the players will be tested from now onwards, not before.”

Strachan took over at Boro in October but the club were never in the hunt for automatic promotion last term and ended up falling well short of the play-offs.

The ex-Manchester United and Leeds midfielder expects this season’s Championship to be more competitive than ever, but insists he is better prepared for the new campaign than when he arrived on Teesside last year.