Stewart Downing wants to be manager of Middlesbrough

As a youngster, the Teessider was a ball boy at Boro’s first-team matches as well as a fan watching on from the stands. Coming through the academy at Rockliffe Park, he played for the youth team before stepping up to the senior squad. Over the course of two separate spells with Boro’s first team, the now-retired 37-year-old made more than 400 appearances, wearing the captain’s armband, sitting on the bench as the club won the Carling Cup final in Cardiff and playing the full 90 minutes of the UEFA Cup final in Eindhoven.

Now, though, as he looks ahead to the next stage of his footballing development, he admits there is one box that is still to be ticked. Having initially started his coaching B Licence with Boro, he began working towards his A Licence during his time with Blackburn. Since hanging up his boots in 2021, he has spent time at Rockliffe, helping to coach the Under-14s and Under-16s in Boro’s academy.

He accepts he still has an awful lot to learn. At some stage in the future though, he would love to complete the full set of on and off-field roles by managing his hometown team.

“The only thing that’s left for me to do is manage my boyhood club,” said Downing, who remains based on Teesside. “Ultimately, I want to get a chance to complete a set that would mean an awful lot to me.

“If that’s going to happen at some point, I don’t know, but it’s the main ambition for this next stage of my career. I’ll keep working hard to try and make sure I get that opportunity.”

The question of whether great players make great managers is one of football’s age-old conundrums. Clearly, the experience of playing in World Cups and high-profile club matches must stand someone like Downing in good stead as he looks to pass on his knowledge and experience to the next generation of players.

Coaching is different to playing though, and as the former winger has quickly learned, moving into the dug-out or manager’s office demands a completely different skill set to the tools that were required as a player.

Thanks to the connections he built up during his playing days, Downing has already been able to work alongside a number of top-class coaches and managers, and he has readily embraced the opportunity to learn new methods and skills that might well have flown over his head when his sole focus was on his own performance levels.

“It’s been great to go back to Middlesbrough to learn my trade, make my mistakes with the younger age groups and watch other coaches,” said Downing, in an interview with The Coaches’ Voice. “Going to other clubs to watch great coaches like Sean Dyche, Tony Mowbray and Steven Gerrard in action has helped me mould my philosophy. It’s amazing seeing how different managers can be.

“I’ve learned how to do team talks, which is something I totally took for granted as a player. I used to watch my managers and think what they were doing looked easy. You just stand in front of everyone and speak. When you actually do it yourself, though, it’s a different ball game. It doesn’t matter if it’s in front of four people or 40 people. The players are listening to every word you say - if you get it wrong, it will come back and bite you.

“That’s the kind of thing I’ve loved learning how to do, though. I like that side of things now, and I’m getting more confident in my ability to get my ideas across. I don’t have immediate plans for where my coaching will take me, but I’m quite open with where I want to get to one day. I want to be a manager.”

As a player, Downing worked under some of the greatest managers in world football. Whether with Middlesbrough, West Ham, Liverpool or Aston Villa, or during his time as an England international, the wide-man got the chance to experience a wide range of managerial and coaching styles.

The boss that stood out most? Steve McClaren, Boro’s Carling Cup winner and now a recently-appointed coach working alongside Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.

“Of all the brilliant coaches I had, I think the one who had the biggest influence on me was Steve McClaren,” said Downing. “He was way ahead of his time with the detail in his work - the analysis he did, the out-of-possession coaching he did with you. He was always out there on the training ground, interacting with his players, pulling you aside to give you a little help here and there.

“He demanded a lot of you, and was happy to put lots of pressure on young players. I loved having that responsibility as a youngster, and I’m forever grateful for him putting me in the first team, and giving me the chance to play for my boyhood club.”

When it came to England, Downing spent most of his time playing under Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swede who handed him his first international cap and presided over the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Fabio Capello was a much stricter disciplinarian than Eriksson, but while his reputation took something of a battering during his time in charge of England, Downing enjoyed working under the Italian.

“He (Capello) was just as strict as people say,” he said. “He wanted things in a very precise way. Some people didn’t like how he managed, but I did – he told you straight what he wanted. That meant you knew where you stood.

“You got simple instructions from him. He was very understated and delivered things in a simple way, which I really liked.

“It was tough for me at the time, because I was competing with really good midfielders for a place in the squad. But Capello still picked me. He didn’t care about your name or your career up to that point; he just wanted the best players on the pitch. And once he picked you, he gave you total confidence.

“He told me he wanted me playing at a higher level than I was at Boro, so that was when I pushed for a move to Aston Villa. When we were competing for the top five and I carried on playing well, he rewarded me with more call-ups.”

While he enjoyed playing at the very highest level, Downing’s move into coaching has made him look back on the days when he was just starting out on his career. And as he finds himself working with youngsters taking their formative steps in football, so he finds himself expressing gratitude to the Boro coaches who played such a crucial role in his own development.

“When you’re young, all you want to do is play,” said Downing. “Looking back, I can appreciate how good my coaches were at Middlesbrough when I was coming through. At the time, I just wanted to kick a ball about and get into the first team.

“Dave Parnaby and Mark Proctor played a huge part in my development in the Boro youth team. They were way ahead of their time with what they were doing. Back then, football in England was very much about playing 4-4-2, getting down the flanks and getting the ball into the box.

“It was something I was good at, being a left-sided midfielder who could dribble and cross, but those coaches spent lots of time with me on my technique, giving individual help. I didn’t realise I needed it back then, but it was huge for me.”