Scott, who worked closely with Stuart Webber in a four year spell that brought two titles wins and a crack at the Premier League for the Canaries under the unheralded German head coach, is striving to emulate that success in the north-east.

“I have been lucky enough to win in this model at Norwich with Stuart Webber and Daniel Farke in a similar scenario,” he said. “Albeit, I would say – and no disrespect to Daniel – Michael is a bigger name as well.

“It does make it that little bit easier when you mention those two and it is very much easier talking to central midfielders at the moment as they see who they could potentially be working with and centre-backs. It certainly makes it that little bit easier.”

Boro hit back to win 2-1 at Norwich in the final Championship game before the World Cup break, but Scott is targeting new blood in January to build on Carrick’s early impact.

“The window is going to be an opportunity to really hone in on some specific players that we like,” he said, reported in the Yorkshire Post. “Then going into the summer it gives us a good six-month period now to really putting our work in to who (players) are going to make us a lot better and not just ‘sticking plasters’ or ‘that one will fill in there’.

“We want to move away from that and hopefully bring in players that make hopefully a big splash and move the club up the division, and hopefully into a new one.”