Stewart Downing Interview In The Times Today

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Stewart Downing sits on the sun-lit terrace of his house in Ibiza and contemplates wistfully where he’ll be at 3pm this Saturday. The 37-year-old former England winger would rather be in the rain back home, facing an opponent half his age in the Championship, contesting the ball, challenging for promotion, but sadly and significantly, he won’t be.

For the first time in 20 years, Downing will be standing on the outside of the professional game, looking in. “I’m not going to lie, it’ll be difficult,” he admits. “I’m going to have to go out and get a couple of beers!”

Downing today announces his retirement after 725 appearances, 63 goals and 97 assists for Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Liverpool, West Ham United and Blackburn Rovers. It’s been quite the career. Downing moved for £42.5 million in total transfers. He won 35 England caps, playing with the Golden Generation at the 2006 World Cup, and making seven assists.

“It’s a massive decision,” Downing acknowledges of today’s announcement. “You think it’ll never end. ‘I can do another year!’ But I had an issue with my knee which was getting me down. I couldn’t recover and do the Championship three games a week. I didn’t want to let the manager [Blackburn’s Tony Mowbray] down.
“Football’s been my life. It’s every day and then it goes. You have to keep your mind ticking over, keep occupied and keep fit. I’m quite excited about coaching and doing media stuff but I can’t sit around. My mind will start going a bit mad.
“I look at the players of my generation, and that World Cup squad and quite a lot have gone into coaching and management. Michael Carrick is coaching. Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney are managing. That gives me a buzz.”

As the Teessider works on his A-licence, he has plenty of experiences to draw upon. Downing thinks back to his formative years, growing up in Pallister Park, within a mile of the Riverside. “We didn’t have a lot but we didn’t go without,” Downing says. “I had a good home-life. Mam and dad gave us as much as they could. Dad took me everywhere with football. I had an older sister and two younger ones who my mam took dancing.”

Tragically, when Downing was eight, his four-year-old sister Vicki passed away with leukaemia. “I dwell on it more now I’m older,” he says. “At the time, I just didn’t really take it all in. You don’t, do you? You’re just a child, aren’t you? I just played football but I look back and think my mam and dad were under 30, two kids to look after, and losing one must be very, very difficult.

“I’m ten years older now than my dad was when he lost his daughter. It must be a lot to deal with but he’s tough. He battled on. He had kids to look after and that was his challenge to carry on.”

Downing was determined to help out one day. “I always had it in the back of my mind if I can get into the first team, I can get players there, for a night, to raise money,” Downing says. He achieved this with one particular dinner to support the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Downing still does, backing cancer charities, echoing the conscientious deeds of present England internationals helping out the NHS during the pandemic. “Players can use their status as footballers to help other people out,” Downing observes. “A lot of these lads come from working-class backgrounds and want to give back. They’re level-headed.

“They’re getting big contracts and it didn’t seem to affect a lot of them. I played with Jordan Henderson, a great lad. Marcus Rashford comes across as a really good person who just wants to help.

“For me, I also wanted to do this [fund-raising] for my mam and dad for what they did for us. They continued to take me to football and give my sisters everything for dancing. They made a massive sacrifice.”

Downing grew up fast. An acclaimed graduate of Boro’s famed academy, Downing learnt from an early age about the art of entertaining. “I was ball boy at the Riverside when it started to take off under Bryan Robson,” he recalls. “When he bought in Juninho, everyone bumped off school that day [October 17, 1995] to go and watch him sign. There were thousands there! I was 11. Everyone took to Juninho. He was exciting.”

Making his Boro debut in 2002, Downing soon began making waves making those driving runs down the left. “I’ve learnt from good managers,” he replies. “When I was 18, 19, I was just playing off the cuff and then Steve McClaren taught me tactically about the game. Steve did a lot of one-to-one work with Ryan Giggs [at Manchester United from 1999 to 2001]. Giggs was a hero of mine growing up, playing on the left. I used to watch what Giggs did off the ball as well as with it.”

Downing’s education accelerated in the first team supplying the demanding Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. “Jimmy was a massive influence,” Downing says. “A lot of people at Middlesbrough used to say to me, ‘you two don’t get on, he’s always bollocking you!’ I did think it a bit personal at first, being a young lad, bit nervous, bit quiet but he toughened me up.

“Jimmy said, ‘I rely a lot on your service to come from the left and I need you to be on your game so that’s my way of getting the best out of you. If you think I’m not doing my job you can have a go at me as well.’ Jimmy’s got that softer side people don’t see. It doesn’t surprise me he’s done well as a manager.”

Hasselbaink and Downing were in tandem at the Riverside on an unforgettable night on April 27, 2006 when Boro faced oblivion at half-time against Steaua Bucharest in the second leg of their Uefa Cup semi-final.

And then McClaren spoke. “He just said, ‘listen lads, we’re basically dead and buried, let’s just go for it.’ He gave everyone belief we could win this.” Especially Downing, who provided assists for Mark Viduka, Chris Riggott and then Massimo Maccarone for the 89th-minute decider.

“Everyone still talks about the Bucharest night!” Downing laughs. “They always say to me, ‘it’s the greatest night I’ve been at!’ For me personally Sven-Goran Eriksson was at the game just before the World Cup so a few of those crosses for a few of those goals helped me to get into that England squad.”

He found a camp bedevilled with cliques. “I drifted between all the groups because I was Middlesbrough,” Downing says. “When you look at the Euro lads now, they look a proper team, no one wants to be better than anyone else. That’s what took them to the final.

“I look at the squad we had in 2006 and we had some of the best players in the world at the time in their positions: [John] Terry, [Rio] Ferdinand, Gerrard, [Frank] Lampard, Michael Owen, Rooney, [David] Beckham. A ridiculous amount of talent.

“Sven was good, quite calm, quite quiet, he got the best out of people. I just couldn’t understand his personal life getting printed out every week. I liked [Fabio] Capello because he didn’t care about the so-called names or who you played for. It was about performances. Capello was more business-like than an arm round people.

“I know he liked me as a player. He even tried to get me to go to Juventus. He wanted all his players to play Champions League. He said, ‘you need to leave Middlesbrough. Would you go to Juventus? They like you.’ I said, ‘It’s not that easy, I can’t just walk out tomorrow! I’ve got to earn that move’.”

By then, Downing was busy developing under Gareth Southgate, who’d succeeded McClaren, enhancing his education. “Gareth played me as a No 10 behind Afonso Alves,” Downing recalls. “Gareth said, ‘you can play in the middle’. I thought, ‘Hold on, I was always a left-winger!’ Gareth was really good. He was a manager as a player, really, so the last couple of years as a player, I used to want approval from him more than the manager. Gareth had that much respect, he was so good with people.”

Southgate still took Boro down in 2009, and Downing eventually left. “It was difficult emotionally,” Downing recalls of signing for Aston Villa, particularly as he was injured. “I was on crutches, had a pin in my foot. I just remember that first week sat in the gym on my own, on a bike, doing my weights thinking this is tough, away from the comforts of mam and dad. But I wanted to test myself. There’s a big world out there when I was only ever used to Middlesbrough.”

He got fit and loved playing under Martin O’Neill. “Martin was a character. I was gutted when he left. Alex McLeish was fine but I had an offer from Liverpool [in 2011] and said to him, ‘Listen, it’s nothing to do with you or the club but it’s a chance I can’t turn down, I’m 27 coming, and always wanted to play for a club like Liverpool’.

“I had to put a letter in to say I’d like to go to Liverpool. I wouldn’t call it a transfer request, just what I wanted to do. Villa fans probably don’t forgive me. I took a bit stick when I went back. But I absolutely loved Villa. It would have been a different conversation if Martin had still been there. We were losing players. James Milner went to Manchester City. Ashley Young went to Manchester United. I felt Villa were dipping. Liverpool was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”

Their manager Kenny Dalglish was very persuasive. “If you can understand him, he is!” Downing laughs. “Kenny rang me once and he was laughing all the way through and I can’t remember three words he said but it must have been good because he found it funny! Great guy. My dad was over the moon because he’s a Liverpool fan, Kenny was his favourite player, and he said, ‘you’ve got to go’.

“I loved playing for Liverpool. You kick towards the Kop and get that energy from the fans. And Kenny’s a legend. I felt really bad for him when he got sacked [in 2012]. He should have been given at least another season.

“The league form wasn’t good enough for the team we had [8th place]. We had to do better. Missing Stevie for large parts of the season through injury was big for us as he’s a massive player. It’s just his presence. He’s quite a quiet lad, Stevie. I’ve seen him raise his voice twice in the time I’ve known him. He demands respect the way he plays. He has high standards. It doesn’t surprise me how well he’s done in management because he’s good with people. Players will follow him.

“We lost Luis [Suárez] through suspension and he was massive for us.” Suárez was banned for making a racist remark to Manchester United’s Patrice Evra in 2011, and Liverpool players were criticised for wearing T-shirts backing him. “We shouldn’t have done it,” Downing admits. “It was more support of a team-mate but looking at the whole thing we were trying to back him when we should really have had a choice on ‘do you want to wear it or not’. Luis learnt a lot from then. Off the pitch, he was a really good lad, quite quiet, actually a family man.”

At Liverpool, where he won the League Cup in 2012, Downing became friends with Henderson, especially with Dalglish’s successor, Brendan Rodgers, suggesting the Wearsider go on loan to Fulham.

“Brendan came in and wanted new players, which is fair enough,” Downing says. “I was talked about leaving. I just said to Brendan, ‘well I’m staying.’ Jordan knew Fulham wanted him. I said, ‘fight for your place here.’ Jordan said, ‘I’m going to stay and fight because I love it here.’ It showed his attitude and application and shows why he is where he is today with Liverpool and England. Jordan always had a leadership quality. He was always dead enthusiastic.”

Downing also admired Raheem Sterling emerging at Anfield. “I could see straight away he had a talent,” Downing says. “Raheem was quick, strong, no fear, dribbles at people, could get a goal. And now he’s gone to another level. His end products got even better. He was the best player for England at the Euros. It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets another big move somewhere, maybe abroad.”

Reflecting on moves, Downing knew he had to move on under a sceptical Rodgers in 2013. “We didn’t fall out,” he emphasises. “Brendan took the Liverpool job at 39, and there was a lot of pressure on him as a young man taking on such a big club as Liverpool. He learnt. He was so confident. He really believed we could beat anyone, going to Man City away, ‘we’re not going to defend, we’re going to attack’.”

Downing moved on in 2013. “When I signed for West Ham, Big Sam [Allardyce] said, ‘You’ll end up as a midfield player.’ We lost Andy Carroll to injury, and the way we wanted to play was crosses to him, so we changed the way we played [in his second season]. Sam put me into the middle with [Diafra] Sakho and [Enner] Valencia just in front of me with pace.

“We went on an unbelievable run. I absolutely loved it and I didn’t want to go back on the wing. Giggs was a winger for years and ends up one of the best centre-midfield players. You should not be arrogant enough to think ‘I’m just this’.”

Still influential in his 30s, Downing returned to the Riverside in 2015. It proved a tense comeback, especially under Aitor Karanka and Garry Monk. Even in these difficult times, Downing was able to learn. “You learn how you treat a player,” he says candidly. “With Aitor, we were fine at first.”

It soon turned sour. “Aitor threw a comment at me and turned his back, and I didn’t like it, and said, ‘If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.’ We didn’t get on. We had a clash of personalities. Honestly, it was horrible. I look back at pictures and I look depressed. I was getting booed. People were listening to the whispers.

“Aitor tried to be [José] Mourinho which is fine, he obviously learnt a lot from him [at Real Madrid] but as the months went on, Aitor fell out with a lot of players. He had a massive fall-out with Albert Adomah, and the players came together to get him back to play.

“Aitor always had a lot of turnover of players because he falls out with that many people. In the end, the Stoke game [March 4, 2017], Aitor left me out of the squad, just put it on the wall, didn’t say anything to the players. I never get that. Tell the player why. How are you supposed to improve? I went to his office and asked him. He gave me a few flimsy comments back which I wasn’t happy with.

“I said, ‘I’ve had enough’ and left. He was playing [Gastón] Ramírez who didn’t want to be there. I told him that. Aitor said, ‘No, no, I’ll get him to play’. The next day he took Ramírez off at half-time because he wasn’t trying a leg, they lost 2-0, and he lost his job. Garry Monk took over and said I didn’t fit into the way he played.”

So Downing, 33, trained hard with the under-23s, stayed stoic, eschewed suggestions to leave, and won Monk round. “He played me nearly every game! I couldn’t get my head around the decision! Maybe he’d got a bit worried over what happened with Karanka, maybe he didn’t want that confrontation.” Yet by 2019, Downing was moving on to Ewood Park, earning praise, but time will always be the most brutal opponent.

Retirement beckons. “Could I have done more?” Downing considers. “I certainly could have done more. I could have won more. But I played with some great players, I gave it my best shot and my family are proud of me. I’m happy.”
 
Good read but I just wish he didn't resent Karanka, he's made a few comments about him now and always seems to bring him up.

I'd love to hear Karanka's thoughts on it all.
 
They were plenty more worse performers than downing

booing because he’s potentially disruptive, one of the stupidest things I’ve heard.

like saying I’ve divorced my wife cos she potentially cheated on me 🤣🤣🤣
Not many was worse and on as much as he was for sure. Ill remove potentially and say he was a very disruptive influence then. his 2nd spell was an absolute shambles and rightfully deserved booing. The first spell he was immense until he started whacking transfer requests in left right and centre.
 
The fact he worked for all those eminent managers and never fell out with any except AK reinforces AK being a brat
And yet a year before he came we had the best dressing room atmosphere we ever had in that play off final year, funny that. And then the chairman got involved buying the players, And he wouldnt dare try and run the dressing room with carragher at liverpool and big sam at WH
 
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