MIDDLESBROUGH HAVE AGREED a deal with Valencia for Spanish striker Alvaro Negredo.

The 30-year-old, who won the Premier League with Manchester City in 2014, has met up with his new team-mates at their training camp in Marbella and becomes Aitor Karanka’s seventh signing of the summer.

Negredo’s capture is a huge coup for the top-flight new-boys and certainly shows how ambitious they are regarding the season ahead.

Karanka, a Spaniard, a Champions League winner with Real Madrid in 1998 and who served as an assistant to Jose Mourinho during his stint in charge at the Bernabeu, is certainly putting his faith in his compatriots to keep Boro afloat in the Premier League.

He’s already raided Valencia for full-back Antonio Barragán while he’s also picked up former Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes.

Negredo enjoyed an excellent start to his career in England but his form dropped off in the second part of his debut season with City.

He went on loan to Valencia in September 2014 and made the move permanent the following summer though he struggled for form.

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