THE MAN who nurtured the left-footed skills of a young David Armstrong says Stewart Downing has the talent to join the ranks of the club's all-time greats.

Former manager Stan Anderson has followed the Pallister Park-born winger's career closely since he first emerged on the first team scene but he says people have to remember Downing is still learning his trade.

"Stewart has the makings of a terrific player," he said. "I've always said that since he was a kid, his talent just needs bringing out.

"He seems to have been around for years but we mustn't forget he's still only 22, he's only a spring chicken."

And Anderson tipped Downing, who is currently away on England duty, to continue improving as he gains experience.

"He's huge amount of talent and he's going to be even better in a couple of years," he said.

The only man to have captained each of the North East's big three teams, Anderson managed Boro from 1966 to 1973, narrowly missing out on promotion several times and laying the foundations for Jack Charlton's 1974 championship team.

Now retired and living in Doncaster, he has no regrets about leaving Boro when he did, saying it needed someone else to come in and complete the job he had started by signing the likes of John Hickton, Graeme Souness, Stuart Boam and Jim Platt.

"I remember one of the directors, George Whinney, asking me why I was going," he said. "I said you get into a situation where you can't see the wood for the trees any more. Sometimes you need someone else to come in and see it.

"Some of the football we played in the season I left was as good as I've seen and yet we had matches when they looked as though they'd never played together before.

"But under Jack there was a consistency about the team all the time."

Charlton added graceful Scottish international midfielder Bobby Murdoch to the gifted young squad he inherited and waltzed away with the Division Two title at the first attempt, winning by a record 15-point margin.

"It was not as though Jack saw something I didn't, I'd bought Nobby Stiles to try and do exactly the same job Bobby Murdoch did," Anderson said.

"But Bobby was a different type of player, he was an excellent passer of the ball and that was what the team needed."

After a brief spell as boss of Greek giants AEK Athens and Panathinaikos, Anderson managed Doncaster and Bolton before leaving the game at the early age of 47 in 1981.

"My wife was pretty poorly and I decided to take a year out of the game thinking I could get back in," he said.

"But it's a bit of a roundabout and once you're off it people stop calling you. I got a few calls at first but then the phone stopped ringing."

He took over the Boro reigns after retiring as a player aged just 32 and he thinks the man who has taken a similar path into management, Gareth Southgate, is starting to put a very good team together.

"I thought the formation was slightly out at the beginning of the season," he said.

"But Jonathan Woodgate tightened it up at the back and it looks to me as though the two front lads are starting to knit together."

Anderson was back on Teesside for the Manchester City game as guest of Middlesbrough Former Players Association, whose president Alan Peacock was a fellow member of England's 1962 World Cup squad.

Although he only gets to a handful of games a season these days he always enjoys the experience and is does not go along with those ex-players who yearn for the good old days.

"The game has changed dramatically, not just the wages the players earn but the stadiums are better, the balls seem lighter and the games are quicker," he said.

"It's all changed and I really think it's for the better."