As soon as you turn into the long, tree-lined driveway leading to Middlesbrough’s training ground it is easy to understand why Stewart Downing was prepared to leave the Premier League behind.
The tarmac cuts a swathe through the elegant parkland surrounding Rockliffe Hall – a hotel so luxurious that executives leading England’s 2018 World Cup bid struggled to coax a Fifa inspection team out of the place – and the Championship club’s weekday headquarters.
Ranked among the best such facilities in Europe, Boro’s base represents a big reason why Downing and his team-mates enjoy coming to work every day, but even so there is a disconnect. Something does not seem quite right and the former England winger nails it.
“No disrespect to the Championship but our fans want to see us taking on Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton every week again,” says a 31-year-old relishing the prospect of reminding a live television audience what he is capable of when Everton visit the Riverside in Tuesday’ night’s League Cup quarter-final.
Much as Downing is delighted to be back in the familiar surrounds of the club where he began a career which would bring him 35 England caps, a certain responsibility rests on his slender shoulders. Quite apart from justifying his £7m transfer fee and generous wages, a creator courted by several top-tier rivals when he left West Ham United last summer knows that, right now, the financial spin-offs of promotion and cup glory could provide Teesside’s economy with a desperately needed fillip.
The death of Redcar’s steel industry is exerting a devastating effect on the area and Downing has friends and relatives feeling the pain first-hand. Sitting here at Rockliffe amidst the cluster of pretty, prosperous villages south of Darlington such problems seem a world away but, 20 miles east across the A66, it is a different story.
“It’s been very difficult for Teesside with the steel plant closing,” he says. “Life has been hard for people. This team has always been well-supported but for the Everton game to have sold out is very special. We took 10,000 fans to Old Trafford [where Boro beat Manchester United in the last round] and we have to try to give them something to be happy about.
“It would be massive for the area to get promoted but so would getting to a cup final. We are trying to do both. By the end of this week we could be top of our division [Aitor Karanka’s second-placed side are at Ipswich on Friday] and in a semi-final. We’ve got a hell of a chance. We’ve proved we can beat the best teams.”
For Downing tonight will be a throwback to not only the 2004 League Cup final – when a side managed by Steve McClaren and including Gaizka Mendieta, Bolo Zenden and Juninho beat Bolton – but also the 2006 Uefa Cup final that Boro lost to Sevilla.
“The atmosphere under the floodlights for those big European nights was unbelievable and I think we’ll see something similar against Everton,” he says. “We’ll be huge underdogs but I fancy us.”
Back in 2004 Downing was an unused substitute. “I was only a young lad so it was good to just be involved in such a famous day,” says a man who went on to play for Aston Villa, Liverpool and West Ham. “It was massive, this club’s first trophy.
“The scenes afterwards with Steve Gibson, our owner, on the pitch were incredible. The parade through the town was brilliant, the streets were absolutely packed. Then playing in Europe was wonderful. It does make me all the more excited about the possibility of getting to another semi-final. It would be great, the town would be absolutely bouncing.
“If I was Everton I’d be wary, they’ll need to be at the top of their game to beat us. I know our manager’s really going to go for the win.”
The enthusiasm in his voice suggests he harbours no second thoughts about having, temporarily at least, turned his back on the Premier League. “I might if we don’t get promoted,” Downing acknowledges. “But, so far, there’s no regrets.”
