91Èȱ¬

Middlesbrough boss Tony Mowbray refused to confirm interest in signing Bristol City winger Albert Adomah, who has submitted a transfer request.

Although Mowbray would not comment on the 25-year-old Ghana international, he did reveal the club are in negotiations to sign potential targets.

"We've made bids for several players," Mowbray told 91Èȱ¬ Tees.

"I don't want to talk individual footballers, as soon as you do you highlight it for other people."

Mowbray continued: "The front end of the pitch is somewhere we do need to strengthen, attacking areas of the pitch wide and down the middle are the areas we are looking at."

Hungary international Josef Varga's loan move from Debrecen and the arrival of free agent Dean Whitehead have been the extent of Boro's summer business, while Scott McDonald, Julio Arca and Nicky Bailey are among the departures.

Meanwhile, Mowbray's side take on Leicester City in their Championship season opener, months after both sides failed to achieve promotion.

Boro's collapse after the turn of the year saw them slide from third in the table - six points behind leaders Cardiff - to 16th place in the bottom half of the Championship.

"A lot has been said about the end of last season and the season before," Mowbray added.

"We started the last two seasons extremely well, in the top two or three at Christmas and new year, so there's no trepidation.

"We lost the opening game last year at Barnsley and yet I think we spent just about every week apart from six in the top six, and I don't see any reason why we can't have a positive start to the season.

"We've added a little bit of experience and we're trying hard to add some more."