‘I want us to go up to make my home town happy’
Stewart Downing can still remember the stunned look on Slaven Bilic’s face, the incredulity in his voice, when he informed his former West Ham manager that he wanted to sign for Middlesbrough.
He did not expect the Croatian to understand. In fact, he did not expect anyone to support the decision he made three years ago. It did, he admits, make little sense to anyone.
How could a manager of a Premier League club comprehend why an England international would want to turn down the chance to continue playing in the top flight, to return to a club who had just lost in a Championship play-off final and were preparing for a seventh successive season outside the top flight?
But for Downing, the pull of returning to his home-town club, the club who had launched his career, the club he had left immediately after relegation from the Premier League in 2009, was too strong.
“I made the same decision aged 30 that I would have done when I was 11,” said Downing, as he prepared for
Middlesbrough’s play-off semi-final, first leg against Aston Villa today. “I came home to this club, it was a very deliberate decision, even though people couldn’t understand why I left West Ham. Slaven Bilic couldn’t, he said that to me, he was baffled, he just couldn’t think why I was willing to drop down into the Championship.
“There were a lot of reasons I left; I had a young family. There was no offer of a new contract. A new manager had come in, I didn’t know where I stood.
“I enjoyed it at West Ham, I played well, got back into the England team, but I had the chance to move back home. They were offering me stability [with a four-year contract] and they were offering first-team football.
“When I left Boro, it was after relegation and this was a chance to come back and get them promoted. I wanted to put that right.”
He already has done once, but now in his third year back on Teesside, Boro have the chance to go up again, this time via the play-offs.
“They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but this will be a new experience for me,” Downing added. “I’ve seen and done most things in my career, but not the play-offs.
“I’ve played in lots of big games, but there is an emotional attachment to Boro that means this is special. As a local lad, I guess you get more of what it means to the fans because your family are from the local area and they live and breathe it.
“I know what the club means to people and I know what it means to be in the Premier League, not just for the club, but the town and the whole area. There is that little bit of extra pressure, but it’s good pressure.
“I have that determination because I want to make a lot of people, my people, happy. That was one of the main reasons for coming back here, so to help win promotion twice, that will be up there with anything I’ve done in my career.”
At the end of Downing’s first season, Middlesbrough were promoted, finishing second behind Burnley. Downing felt vindicated, but what followed was hard. Boro tumbled back into the Championship following an insipid campaign. They were so boring to watch that nobody mourned their departure other than their own fans. It was an opportunity wasted.
Worse followed for Downing last summer when he was told by the club’s new manager, Garry Monk, that he should leave.
“I feared I would be off,” Downing said. “I was told I could go. Well not quite, but I was told I wouldn’t be playing much, that I didn’t fit in to the way he wanted to play.
“I didn’t agree with him, so it was difficult. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to get back into the team. I found it strange because by the end of September I was playing every week.”
Downing resists the temptation to expand, insisting he “got on OK” with Monk, who was sacked in November with Boro outside the play-off places, a position deemed unacceptable by chairman Steve Gibson. Having
‘People couldn’t understand why I left West Ham. Slaven Bilic couldn’t, he was baffled’
spent more than £50million on players in pre-season, Boro’s benefactor had promised supporters they would try to “smash the Championship.”
What is clear is that Downing has far more time for the man who replaced Monk, Tony Pulis. “He has been first-class with me. He has worked with a lot of experienced players before, he values them and what they can bring,” the midfielder said.
“He’s very demanding, but you need that. When he first came in, he said, ‘I’m not here to mess about, I’m here to get promoted.’ He’s my kind of manager, he’s a straight talker. I don’t want to label him an old-school manager, because that sort of thing follows you around and it’s an unfair tag.
“It’s followed Sam Allardyce around, Martin O’neill – and what a manager he is, absolutely brilliant – and Steve Bruce. I don’t know why people want to suggest they are old-fashioned, it’s a tag they can’t get rid of.
“Tony Pulis is right up to date with his ideas, he’s moved with the times and he has excellent people around him. He knows everything that is going on in the modern game.”
Downing turns 34 in July and will start studying for his coaching badges next month. But he wants another crack at playing in the Premier League. “The last promotion, it was exhausting, there was relief rather than joy. I want to enjoy this one more.
“To get relegated straightaway, it was a strange season. We started reasonably well. But we didn’t do ourselves justice. The season fizzled out really. The longer it went on, the confidence evaporated.
“We didn’t put up enough of a fight, it felt very flat. It was difficult for the fans and the players, but we cannot wait to get back there.
“We’ve had a taste of it now, the big teams, the big players and the big grounds. We want to play Manchester City, Tottenham, we want to be among the best. That is what I came back here to do.”
‘Tony Pulis is very demanding, but you need that. He’s my kind of manager, a straight talker’