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Tony Pulis admits Middlesbrough won’t be able to fight off a serious bid for Adama Traore.

The Boro boss has praised his prize asset’s attitude and says he’s got a “soft spot” for the Spaniard, whom he’s helped start to fulfil his huge potential.

Pulis is realistic about the club’s ability to hold off an offer for Traore that matches his valuation. Whether that means there’s a clause in the player’s contract that means he can talk to an interested party if the offer reaches a certain price is not clear.

But when the Middlesbrough manager was asked whether a deal for Traore was close, he said: “No, no, no... well we can’t fight it off, if it’s gonna happen it’s gonna happen so he’s a terrific lad and someone who I’ve got the time for and a lot of respect for.

“Obviously I’ve got a soft spot for the kid.”

Traore has featured regularly for Boro in pre-season and started Saturday’s 4-3 loss at Accrington .

(Image: Focus Images)

Pulis praised the winger’s attitude, saying: “I think you’ve seen him today work his socks off, gets stuck in, score – there’s nothing clouding his mind at the moment his attitude was first class again.

The good news for Boro fans is the club have managed to keep hold of Traore and Ben Gibson so far this summer.

“Yes I think everybody is relieved that’s the case,” Pulis said. “But football’s football, you’re at a football club who have sold players before, that’s what happens and you can accept it and the important thing is to find players who can come in and replace them if they do go.

“There’s no definites in football, what we’ve got do is make sure if we lose players, then we bring good ones in because that’s important for everybody at the football club.

“Everybody understands and respects Steve’s view of the football club and what he wants to achieve so hopefully it will be an interesting two weeks.

“I think usually the best deals are done at the end of the window not during the window.”

(Image: Focus Images)

Pulis admits Boro have been put off potential signings because of inflated price tags.

“I think we’ve got good signings in (Paddy) McNair and (Aden) Flint and they were done because the prices were right. If they weren’t right we would have left it until the last weeks to see if we can get the right prices,” he said.

“But we thought they were good prices so we paid the money.

“But there have been other ones that we’ve spoke about and tried and we thought the prices were ridiculous . I won’t be doing that.

“We need to get a few players in and move a few out,” Pulis added. “I think there are a few players here that want to play regular football, which is fine. “Fingers crossed we can get one or two in but we have to do it in the right way and the right manner. I think anyone watching this (Accrington) will know there are areas that have to be strengthened and we have to do that.”

Paddy McNair was among the scorers at Accrington, putting Boro into the lead, but his manager thought he should have had a few more.

(Image: Focus Images)

However, Pulis is confident the Northern Irishman can achieve double figures in the coming season.

“I think we needed more goals in the team and I still think we need more goals in the team,” he said.

“There’s not enough goals in the team at the moment so we need somebody that’s going get 10 goals from midfield and Paddy, fingers’ crossed, will be the one that can do that.

“He’s got great energy, I think you’ve seen that today, he can get box-to-box and make really intelligent runs off the back of people.

“I was really pleased with him today in a lot of respects but the disappointing thing is he’s got to sharpen that finishing up.

“People will look at me and say ‘he isn’t going to score that many’, but he got a goal and really and truthfully he could have scored four goals. They are all in the box, clean strikes in the box.”