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They didn't do badly did they?

Despite only spending a rumoured £21.5m, Boro boss Aitor Karanka managed to sign the joint-most players in the Premier League.

The Spaniard brought 12 new faces to the Riverside this summer — only West Ham managed that many and they could offer European football...albeit very briefly.

And apart from the signing of former Barcelona wonderkid, Adama Traore, all of the business was done earlier this summer, allowing the new arrivals to have longer to get settled in.

The other promoted sides, Hull City and Burnley, both only managed seven signings, with the latter breaking their transfer record twice to sign Steven Defour and then Jeff Hendrick.

Here's a full table of who signed the most players, according to data from Transfermarkt .

Though Boro signed 12 players, they only dished out transfer fees for four of them, with Marten de Roon's £12m accounting for more than half of the club's total spend.

And even though they splashed out £12m on one player, Boro actually managed to spend the third-least in the league, just behind Burnley and Hull.

In fact, despite Sean Dyche's comments on Boro's spending abilities over the past few seasons , Burnley managed to spend just 500k less — splashing £21m out on four players (not including loan fees).