WITH January’s transfer window approaching, Middlesbrough boss Tony Mowbray is bracing himself for some cut-throat negotiations to bolster his squad’s push for promotion.

Mowbray spent last summer’s window cutting the cloth as club chairman Steve Gibson needed to balance the books after the ‘Strachan experiment’ – designed to get them promoted last season – fell flat on its face within a handful of months.

There was literally no room for manoeuvre for Mowbray as shipping out high earners such as Kris Boyd and Leroy Lita took priority, with his transfer budget not allowing him to splash the cash.

Roll on to the end of December, and Boro are in a healthier position to at least have a serious look and dip their toe into the buyer’s market.

And while Mowbray has not presented Gibson with a hitlist of players he wants to bring in, discussions have taken place regarding strategy.

He said: “I don’t think we do anything as formal like me giving the chairman a list of players who I would like to target in the transfer window.

“We discuss footballers quite often and I think he knows the footballers that we like. I think we’ll have a more formal meeting – probably after the Blackpool game.

“I think he’s going to be supportive as best he can in this window. It gives us an opportunity to try and improve upon the start to the season that we’ve had. And yet, I fully understand that every player has got a price and a value and in January, very rarely do you get good cut-price bargain deals. Everybody is a bit more expensive.” One player who Mowbray will not be making a move for is Hearts’ left-sided midfielder and England Under-21 international Andy Driver.

His agent remarked in the past week that several Championship clubs have inquired about him – but Boro, according to Mowbray, are not one of them.

He added: “No – we have not been in enquiring about Andy Driver’s availability. He’s a decent player but he is not a player that we have talked about.”

However, there are other players out there who, like Driver, look set to leave their current clubs – and Mowbray says that he already has somebody on the case to find out for him, who might soon be on the market.