Gareth Southgate has warned his Middlesbrough stars he will push them to the limit as he attempts to instil his philosophy for the new season.Boro return for pre-season training on July 7 and will prepare for the Premier League campaign with friendlies against York, Carlisle, Hibernian and Darlington either side of their Algarve Cup clashes against Celtic and Vitoria Guimares in Portugal.

The two games in Faro are attractive fixtures, although Southgate is determined to lay the foundations for the new season as early as possible.

He said: "In many respects, the quality of the opposition gives the players something to look forward to, but it is what we work on during training and can we take that into the matches?

"We need to nail down the details of how we play a lot earlier in pre-season this season so that anybody who comes into the side knows exactly what is expected of them."

An injury-hit Boro suffered a slow start to last season, winning only two of their first 15 league games and losing eight to add to an air of pessimism that started with a 3-0 pre-season defeat by German side FC Schalke in Austria.

Southgate insisted at the time the result in that game was unimportant as his players worked towards match fitness, and he is keen to make the point the same will apply this time around.

He told the club's official website: "We have got a good variety of fixtures.

"We play local games against York, Carlisle and Darlington, we are away at Hibs and we have got a mini-tournament in the Algarve, where we play Celtic and Guimares, who qualified for the Champions League from the Portuguese league.

"They are good quality games for us. Those games in Portugal in particular will be very much part of our training programme.

"We will train through them and we might even send the team into those games quite fatigued.

"They will be part of our training rather than games we are expecting to go out and win and where the result is everything.

"It is important to make that point before we go there because I know when we played Schalke last season in the very early part of our pre-season and we lost, it started a bit of doom and gloom.

"We will use that tournament as a major part of training, but nevertheless, it is a super stadium down in Faro and it's against good quality opposition."

The Teessiders are hoping to make a series of breakthroughs in the summer transfer market within the next few days with Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Didier Digard closing in on a £4million move to the Riverside Stadium.

Boro were not commenting on reports they have tabled a £3million-plus offer for Reading's James Harper, although the 27-year-old is a player Southgate admires.

The recruitment of midfielders is his main priority this summer with Fabio Rochemback and Gaizka Mendieta having left the club and uncertainty over the futures of George Boateng and Gary O'Neil persisting.

Chelsea's Steve Sidwell was a target, but seems certain to head for Aston Villa, and his former Royals team-mate is among a series of targets who have been considered.

Southgate is at Warwick University this week along with coaches Colin Cooper and Malcolm Crosby as they embark upon the UEFA Pro Licence course.

The 37-year-old was given special dispensation to manage in the Premier League without the mandatory qualification two years ago, and has since acquired the 'B' and 'A' Licences required before he could enrol on the Pro Licence course.

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