Key events
Middlesbrough have spent over £20m this summer in their bid to reach the Premier League:
Will Lankshear (£10m, Tottenham)
Max Arfsten (£5.6m, Columbus Crew)
Kyle Joseph (£4m, Hull)
Jeremy Sarmiento (£3.4m, Brighton)
Sebastian Berhalter (£1.65m, Vancouver Whitecaps)
They’ve also lost talisman Hayden Hackey, who joined Everton for £17m, plus the likes of Dael Fry and Matt Targett on free transfers.
Head coach Kim Hellberg said …
“We lost some good players … But we’ve also got some very talented players in. I think that when we start the season, we’re going to be at a higher level. I think we have a higher potential in the players we have here, and that we’re going to have a stronger squad when we start the season.
Credit to the people above me, they have been doing a brilliant job. We will see if we add some more, which we hopefully will do.
Middlesbrough’s pre-season has taken them to the Algarve and Glasgow, plus a couple of fixtures at home:
Farense 2-2 Middlesbrough, Quinta do Lago
Celtic 1-1 Middlesbrough, Glasgow
Middlesbrough 1-3 Huddersfield, Rockliffe Park
Middlesbrough 3-3 Espanyol, Riverside Stadium
Wrexham have been to Poland, Finland and the US – including a friendly against Liverpool at Yankee Stadium, as you do:
Wisla Krakow 0-0 Wrexham, Krakow
Manchester Utd 0-1 Wrexham, Helsinki
Leeds 2-3 Wrexham, Tampa
Liverpool 1-0 Wrexham, New York
Sunderland 1-0 Wrexham, Philadelphia
It’s been a tight turnaround for Wrexham – they only arrived back in the UK at the start of this week.
Phil Parkinson said …
We haven’t trained much this week because it was important to ensure the lads had the rest they needed so their bodies could recover, but we’re going up there to give the best account of ourselves.
It’s a fantastic experience to be over in America representing Wrexham, it really is, you almost have to see it to believe it. We’ve enjoyed that but now it’s full focus on the start of the season.
Starting lineups
Middlesbrough (3-4-1-2): Brynn; Ayling, Borges, Malanda; Brittain, Berhalter, Castledine, Arfsten; Sarmiento; Whittaker, Lankshear.
Subs: Dieng, McLaughlin, Joseph, Edmundson, McCabe, Ibeh, Cartwright, Dede, Daley.
Will Lankshear, a £10m buy from Spurs, makes his competitive debut for Boro up front. Their two American signings, Max Arfsten and Sebastian Berhalter, start as well.
Wrexham (3-4-2-1): Ward; Vyner, Hyam, Doyle; Imray, M James, O’Brien, Thomason; Rathbone, Broadhead; Smith.
Subs: Okonkwo, Cleworth, Keillor-Dunn, Whiteman, Cadamarteri, Dobson, Moore, Scarr, Longman.
Right wing-back Daniel Imray makes his full debut for Wrexham after moving from West Brom and Danny Ward gets the nod in goal.
Carabao Cup fixtures – here’s what’s coming up tonight and over the weekend. All times BST.
Tonight
Wolves v Port Vale (7.45pm)
Wycombe v Stevenage (7.45pm)
Middlesbrough v Wrexham (8pm)
Tomorrow
Cambridge Utd v Barnet (1pm)
QPR v Millwall (2pm)
24 ties at 3pm including West Ham v Portsmouth, Swansea v Birmingham and Burnley v Notts County
Cheltenham v Charlton (5.30pm)
Colchester v Southampton (5.30pm)
Rotherham v West Brom (5.30pm)
Sunday
Mansfield v Sheffield Utd (4pm)
Monday
Plymouth v Exeter (8pm)
For now the competition is split into north and south sections, as will be the case in round two, when the 11 Premier League sides not involved in Europe (including Chelsea, Tottenham, Everton and Newcastle) will enter. Round two is back to midweek on 25-27 August.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the start of the English football season. Well, technically that was yesterday with Walsall beating Bristol City in the opening game of the Carabao Cup proper – there was a preliminary round last weekend. But tonight there are three first-round ties and I’ll be focusing on the one at the Riverside as Middlesbrough host Wrexham.
The start of the EFL season has been spread out to allow players to have more rest between their first few matches, hence why a full round of Carabao Cup fixtures are being played over the course of the weekend for the first time this century.
Middlesbrough would have been hoping to avoid this round when they faced Hull in the Championship playoff final at the end of May, but their return to the big time has not happened just yet. Wrexham have been in the big time this summer, touring the United States, as they have in previous years, off the back of the success of their documentary series and the influence of their Hollywood owners.
Kick-off in the north east is at 8pm (BST) – if you want to get in touch during the game then you can email me here.
