Boro boss Chris Wilder coy over links to Hull City ace Jacob Greaves

Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder remained tight-lipped over claims the Teesside club had enquired about Hull City star Jacob Greaves. Tigers vice-chairman Tan Kesler revealed last week that their Championship rivals had made contact over the availability of the 21-year-old.

Though given encouragement by Kesler about being open to listening to offers, Boro were some distance away from the valuation City hold for the defender, who has one more year left on his current MKM Stadium deal, though that will likely be two when the club activate an additional 12 months next summer.

City hope to pin Greaves down to a new long-term deal with the player himself admitting in May that he would be keen to sign fresh terms, but no agreement has been reached.

Boro's 'friendly conversation' as Kesler described it has not yet manifested itself into an official bid for the youngster who played every single minute of City's Championship campaign last season, and Wilder when addressing his side's activity this summer after Saturday's 5-0 friendly win at non-league Bishop Auckland was coy over current progress.

"There’ll be names linked, but I’m never going to come out and talk about them until they’re in a Middlesbrough shirt because so much can happen between talks and signing," he told TeessideLive. "We’re progressing nicely with a few potential signings. A lot of the clubs have only come back this week, whereas we’ve been back for a week before that.

"We’re ramping it up. The players are enjoying the work, we’ve had the first competitive game now. There’s still a lot of work to do, and we’ll be ramping it up again next week on the training pitch, in the gym, and in terms of recruitment. I’m delighted in terms of where we are. I’m