Could I have walked out then? If I had, Terry wouldn't have accepted the job.

I had to make a change. It was no slight on my staff either. We'd all been at Boro for seven years. But certain players had got too familiar with the set-up. I had to turn it round. Terry was the one man I could think of to do it. So I went for him.

I was determined to get it right on the pitch. Then, if I had to leave at the end of the season, so be it. I never felt threatened or isolated by the arrangement. We worked together and it worked out.

A lot of people, some of them close to me as well, have said that I sacrificed myself by doing what I did in bringing Terry on board. I didn't see it that way.

If I'd been able to put the collection together in one go, say over two years, we'd have had a special team, most wouldn't stay. One or two glory seasons and they were off. To them, the north-east was too far out. They wanted to be with the big hitters.

Last season when things weren't working out, I thought we needed a different voice around the place.