Grant Leadbitter is thoroughly understated and totally devoid of bling but the polite, modest exterior does not tell the whole story. It would be a mistake to confuse a lack of swagger and designer accessories with a dearth of inner confidence, let alone a willingness to sell himself short. “I believe I can play at Premier League level again,” he says, looking you straight in the eye. “All it takes is an opportunity and this year I’ve got a great one to get there with Middlesbrough.”
On Sunday Aitor Karanka’s most important midfielder is taking a mid-winter mini-break from the Championship grind at the Emirates where he hopes Arsenal’s FA Cup defence will falter in the fifth round. With Middlesbrough starting the weekend top of their division and having won at Manchester City in the fourth round, Arsène Wenger must be suitably wary. “It’ll be good to test ourselves against Arsenal,” Leadbitter says. “Our aim is to go there and win. If you get into the quarter-finals you never know what can happen.”
Even so Boro could do without the road to Wembley taking a detour in the form of a rematch at the Riverside. “Winning down there is important because a replay wouldn’t be any good to us,” he says. “We’ve got too many games – there’s five in the Championship this month and the next one’s a tough away match at Birmingham on Wednesday. Birmingham’s more important than Arsenal but the manager wants to win every game.”
It is a murky February day at Rockliffe Park, Middlesbrough’s training facility near Darlington, but even a character as resolutely matter-of-fact as Leadbitter becomes slightly animated when Karanka is mentioned.
Once José Mourinho’s assistant at Real Madrid, the Spaniard is increasingly dubbed Teesside’s “Special One” after presiding over six straight wins in the course of a 10-game unbeaten run.
The diligence and invention of Karanka’s coaching has been complemented by a clever manipulation of the often tricky loan market. “The manager’s imposed his mentality on the dressing room,” says Leadbitter, who captains the team during Jonathan Woodgate’s frequent absences. “He wants us to train with real intensity every day. If you don’t train properly you don’t play – no matter who you are. There’s still a long way to go this season but results suggest we’re reaping the reward of his coaching.
“His training sessions are really good, really imaginative. They’re always different and there’s always a philosophy behind them. There’s an idea, a theme for each session. He improves us individually and as a group. He’s played for Real Madrid and he knows that to get the best out of players you need competition for every position. I know from my own experience that if you don’t have competition players can rest on their laurels and get comfortable.”
An invitation to compare Karanka with Roy Keane, Leadbitter’s manager at his two former clubs, Sunderland and Ipswich, is met with a quizzical glance from the County Durham-born 29-year-old who grew up “Sunderland mad”. “I don’t like to compare people,” said the central midfielder once likened by Keane to Paul Scholes. “Aitor Karanka’s very different but they both change the mentality of clubs completely.”
If Keane was let down by less than perfect man-management, Karanka is strong on communication. “Everyone loves him, everyone comes in smiling every day,” Leadbitter says “But we all respect him, too. He’s a great man-manager. He takes the time to talk to you individually, which is very important, and he analyses other teams, their strengths and weaknesses, brilliantly.
“He’s brought players in who buy into what he wants. I’ve been at clubs where double training sessions were suggested and certain people have been unhappy and put pressure on the manager to get them scrapped. No one’s like that here.
“I’ve been with teams where loan players have come in and it doesn’t work. They come in, they go out and they don’t care. But the manager’s done his homework because our loans have all bought into what this club’s about. Our dressing room’s really strong and it’s down to him.”
