IT WAS a year ago yesterday that Morgan Rogers left Middlesbrough for Aston Villa.

"He's done alright, hasn't he," joked Michael Carrick on Friday.

Indeed. But so too did Boro in the second half of last season, despite Rogers' exit. Had they started the campaign like they'd finished it, Boro would have secured a second successive top six finish.

Championship promotion chasers don't want to lose their best players but the financial realities of life in the second tier are blatantly obvious. The challenge is to deal with departures and not be knocked off track.

"There's a cycle in football," said Boro boss Carrick.

"But our responsibility is to keep moving in the forward direction. You might lose certain players at certain times, that can't affect the cruise ship, you need to keep moving forward and keep moving in the path we want to move.

"You have to take a hit every now and again, that's part of it and we've had to do that since I've been here. We've had some really good players and they've had to move on. We have to keep moving in the right direction."

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And that is what Boro are aiming to do and believe they're equipped to do after the imminent departure of Emmanuel Latte Lath, who is set to complete his move to Atlanta United ahead of Monday night's deadline.

The aim, as Carrick made clear at the start of the month, was to end the window with the squad as strong - or stronger - than it was at the end of December.

Even with Latte Lath set to move on, Boro are confident that will be the case. Mark Travers, George Edmundson, Ryan Giles and Morgan Whittaker have already arrived, Samuel Iling-Junior is set to join on loan from Aston Villa and a striker will also arrive. Talks with Sevilla over a loan move with Kelechi Iheanacho are moving in the right direction.

"Our challenge is always to do that, to move forward," said Carrick.

"Sometimes it's players moving on to other things, whether it's on loan for a certain time in their development, or whether it's to move on for different reasons.

"But as a club we always have to feel that we're moving forward, whether that's on the pitch performances or off the pitch building a squad. That's up to us to find a way of doing that."

And finding a way to do that is a lot easier when everyone is on the same page behind the scenes.

"It's vital that we are and understand the situation, what can be done and what's the limits," said Carrick.

"Every football club has limits and boundaries. We're realistic and acknowledge that between us, certainly at my level and above, which is what we do. It works really well."

Rogers last January, Latte Lath this year, Porto's enquiry for Hayden Hackney and clubs no doubt monitoring Rav van den Berg - it's all attention that shows Boro are doing something right.

Carrick said: "We have good players in the group. There are teams looking at our players, good players. There has been for some time since I've been here, we've managed it well and will continue to do that.

"If other clubs and people are talking about our players in a positive light then for us it's bittersweet, but we'll continue to do what we're doing.

"I'll continue to work with the players that are here, try to improve them individually and try to have a team that is improving all the time and playing good football. We want to play winning football, that's always the aim and won't change.

"I'm excited by the group we've got, we have some good talent in the group and a good balance and I'm really excited about what we can do between now and the end of the season."