The talk may be all about Andy Townsend going out on a high note at the World Cup but recently the former Chelsea and Aston Villa midfielder has been thinking of the days after next summer and the ways in which he can get the best out of those days he still has left to him at the top of the English club game. And if things go to plan then talk of the midfielder's departure from the Irish set-up may prove to be premature.

The recent move to Middlesbrough, he admits now, surprised him as much as anybody else but the passing of years has altered the priorities of the Irish captain somewhat and, having left London for Birmingham in the search for honours, the targets are now just a little different.

"It's not that I am not ambitious anymore," he says. "But the offer that Bryan Robson made me was one that I would have been very foolish at this stage of my career not to consider. Aside from the money (rumour has it that he is on around £850,000 a year), he was offering me another year after this season which, if I'm honest with myself, I don't think I would have got at Villa Park.

"In the end, there wasn't any pressure on me to go, but dropping down a division now seemed to offer the chance to play in the Premiership next season and so it wasn't all that hard a decision to make. It wasn't like I was going to a team that was going to be struggling down near the foot of the table."

So far, he says, there are no regrets although he does admit to a mild case of culture shock after the first few away games. "One of the first ones was Stockport where it was suddenly back to very small dressing-rooms and all of that. Then there was Crewe, who are fine but with all due respect to them, they're a million miles away from the Man Uniteds, Liverpools and Arsenals.

"But we're lucky because it is very different to some other clubs at Middlesbrough. Our facilities are very good, we sell out our home games and we have a very ambitious chairman."

On the pitch he has fitted in easily, playing occasionally, wide on the left side of midfield rather than his preferred central role but coping comfortably with the pace of the game at the lower level. Robson's change in direction from the higher profiled foreign stars to those with a proven record in the English league has appeared to pay dividends and the club is performing well even if it is tight at the top.

"It's the sort of league which you can sort of coast, like they did, if you get a good enough start under your belts but the way it's mapping out so far, it looks as if there are going to be too many teams in contention for that to happen this year. Still everything seems to be gelling well and the deals that Bryan made since last season seem to have come off."

He feels morale at the club is high and there is confidence about the chances of making an immediate return to the Premiership. Even if it happens, he says "it's difficult to imagine me being around with the Irish boys after the summer," but not as difficult as it is imagining him declining the call from a manager who, like Robson, seems likely to look on him as a good investment for at least another season.