It has been a busy summer so far for Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka.

He has secured the signatures of Spanish 'keeper Victor Valdes along with former Atalanta midfielder Marten de Roon and Scotland U21 international Jordan McGhee last week.

Prior to this, the Teesside outfit had also signed up Danish winger Viktor Ficher and ex Sporting Gijon centre back Bernardo Espinosa.

Real Madrid's former assitant manager, however, has a number of players still on his wish list for Boro. One of those is Valencia right back Antonio Barragan.

Boro making a swoop for Valencia duo?

The deal which looks most likely to go through at this moment in time is the transfer to bring former Real Valladolid right back Antonio Barragan to the Riverside Stadium.

Yesterday, local paper the Gazette revealed Antonio Barragan was flying into Teesside to finalise a deal.

Barragan has played 110 times for Valencia since joining in 2011, but has lost his place in recent times to young Portugese full back Joao Cancelo.

Spanish newspaper Superdeporte revealed that Barragan is Boro bound and is set to sign a 3 year deal, with the transfer being worth around £2.5 million.

The second Valencia player that Middlesbrough are supposedly close to signing is former Manchester City and Sevilla forward Alvaro Negredo.

Negredo, who scored 23 goals during his one year stint in the Premier League, is a target for both Boro and Chairman Steve Gibson has sent a delegation to Spain to broker a deal with Valencia and Negredo's representatives.

The Gazette, however, revealed that "The Beast's" €134,000 per week wages are a stumbling block, thus stalling the deal.

Although the Negredo deal is slowing in progress, SkyBet have today stopped taking bets on Negredo's transfer to Middlesbrough. They see the deal as all but done.

Neven to move to the North East?

Staying with SkyBet, the bookmaker are offering odds of 1/2 for Neven Subotic to sign with Boro.

Whereas DW Sports Journalist Stefan Bienkowski tweeted that the Serbian centre half will make up his mind whether to join Middlesbrough or Sunderland next week.

This comes after reports revealed Subotic had visited Teesside and is eager to join despite interest from North London.

One other transfer Middlesbrough hope to conclude before the first game of the season - Stoke City is Gaston Ramirez.

The former Boro loanee is awaiting approval of his work permit so that he can complete a deal to rejoin Karanka's men after scoring seven times and helping Middlesbrough reach the Premier League.