Akpom’s 29 goals helped fire Boro to within two games of the Premier League but after missing out on promotion Carrick is still in the process of rebuilding his forward line, with last season’s Championship top scorer and Player of the Year having joined Ajax.

Dealing with and recovering from exits of players is part and parcel of life at any football club – as Carrick knows only too well from his own playing career. And the answer, he says, isn’t always to go out and find a direct replacement. Instead, it can be to adapt.

“Players from all sorts of different teams at every level move on, that is football, it happens,” said Carrick.

“Even at Manchester United, they had a history of losing players and finding a new way to cope without them. We were always able to adapt. Looking back at when we lost Cristiano Ronaldo and all those goals. It wasn’t necessarily about bringing in someone who could score the same amount of goals as him. It was not about finding another player who could score 30 or 40 but making sure more players chipped in, sharing them out a bit more.

“History proves that is what every team has to do at some stage. And that is my challenge right now, bringing the best out of what’s next and making the most of what we have now and we’ll certainly try to do that.”

That’s not to say Boro don’t want to strengthen in attack. They’re understood to be targeting a striker and a No.10 ahead of next Friday’s deadline, but the players who they want to sign won’t necessarily possess the same qualities as Akpom or Cameron Archer, who impressed on loan from Aston Villa.

Carrick said: “It is never straightforward and rarely a case of signing like for like. No two players are the same for getting the goals. It is the same with centre backs, they all have different attributes, different skills.”

Replacing Akpom and Archer as well as the likes of Ryan Giles, Aaron Ramsey and Zack Steffen was never going to be easy, but Carrick says the challenge for Boro is to build again.

“Credit to the boys, they had a good season last year and that showed their quality in terms of where they are now,” he says.

“I’m pleased for them. For us, it is about evolving and finding the next best solution and striving for high standards whoever it may be – individually or collectively. That is always the challenge. We cannot rely on last season to make this one a good one. Of course, you can use it to build on and as experience.

“But football is changing all the time and you have to evolve and come up with different ideas all the time. That is the beauty of it, you cannot stand still.

“It is not about replacing what is gone, it is all about what we have to do now to achieve success.

“And that could be done in all sorts of different ways, goals that are shared out, set plays, individual goals, there are all sorts of ways of doing it. We have good options, good variety and flexibility. Obviously, there are decisions to be made in terms of team selection but it feels a good place to be and over the course of the season, we will be alright.”