Anyone wondering about the impact Alan Browne is having on Middlesbrough, their Premier League promotion challenge and evolution into a fast, attractive team, just had to look at the club’s social media channels last week. After a 2-1 win away at Championship rivals Stoke City, a game in which Browne scored Boro’s opener, the club’s official handle changed to, “Alan Browne is very good at football”.
It represents a different kind of recognition for the 30-year-old from Cork. Informal perhaps, lighthearted, but it is appreciation nonetheless. It tells us something about how Middlesbrough as a club and fan base have come to see the midfielder/right back/wing back. The ability to adapt to those positional changes in a fluid, attacking system is why Browne’s nous is being applauded.
Unfortunately, no one had mentioned it to Browne and the tag has been replaced in a fast-moving social media world.
“I didn’t see that,” he says, smiling at a question collapsing. “But it’s funny, it’s a nice touch.”
He will take it, just as he took the warm applause of the Preston North End fans last Saturday, even though he had scored again, and against the club he represented for a decade, where he was captain, Player of the Year twice and Young Player of the Year twice.
Boro beat Preston 4-0 to stay second in the Championship. They are well placed to go up for the first time since 2016-17. The last four matches have been won with a goals tally of 13 scored and three conceded. Browne has played all but six minutes of them. Impressive new 37-year-old Swedish coach Kim Hellberg called Browne’s versatility “unbelievable” a fortnight ago.
While clearly not a man to shout such things about himself, Browne does concede: “I think I’m playing well at the minute.
“I don’t really look into people on the outside acknowledging that. As long as the coaching staff and my teammates acknowledge it, that’s all I care about. The fact is in football you can be a hero one week and the scapegoat the next. You can’t get carried away when you’re doing well.”
Ireland’s Josh Cullen (right) and Alan Browne close in on Ukraine’s Mykola Shaparenko in a UEFA Nations League game in Lodz, Poland, in 2022. Photograph: Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images
His form, however, and the cruel injury to Josh Cullen, means Irish eyes must be glancing towards Browne as the World Cup playoffs in March inch closer. Browne has 37 caps stretching back to 2017; he won those under Martin O’Neill, Mick McCarthy, Stephen Kenny and Heimir Hallgrímsson; his last appearance was in September 2024, the Nations League loss at home to Greece.
Browne is certainly not as complimentary about his Ireland career as others are about his form. He has had no formal indication the FAI are watching his every move at Boro, but reveals Hallgrímsson called him during November’s squad preparation for the double header against Portugal and Hungary. He had not been at Middlesbrough long (he is on loan from Sunderland), coach Rob Edwards was about to leave for Wolves and Browne was nursing an injury.
Given he had missed four months of Sunderland’s promotion season with a leg fracture, he is entitled to caution.
“Last year when I came out of the squad, I didn’t hear too much,” he says of Ireland post-Greece. “Obviously I had an injury as well, that played a big part. In the last camp somebody pulled out late and the gaffer did give me a call to come in. But I was carrying a knock, I’d missed a couple of games and I’d not been involved with Ireland for a while, so the club plan was to get through to the international break and make sure things were okay. I told him (Hallgrimsson) the situation, he kind of said it was best to stay here. That was the last time we spoke.”
A bit has happened since – not least Troy Parrott’s goal heroics.
“My thought process this year was to get back playing at a good level for the club, then it’ll all fall into place if you do that,” Browne says. “It was gutting to see Josh get that injury, I sent him a message straight away. He’s such a good person and he’s been class for Ireland. He’ll be a big miss.
“But, as you say, it’s an opportunity for someone else. It could be me. If not, I’ll be cheering the team on from home. Whoever’s playing well will get that chance.” Will Smallbone, Jason Knight and Jayson Molumby are others in contention to replace Cullen.
As Parrott did what he did in Budapest, Browne was cheering from the kitchen with his back to goal. “I watched it at home, I actually left the room to get my kids some food and my wife says, ‘Troy Parrott’s got a hat-trick!’.
Troy Parrott celebrates his late winning goal against Hungary at Puskas Arena, Budapest, last November. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images
“I said, ‘He hasn’t?’. I came back in and, oh my God, I got shivers. As if I’d scored. I was so happy for Troy, he’s such a good kid, lovely. He works so hard, he was with me at Preston for a year, so I saw him on a day-to-day basis. I was just so happy for him and the team.”
Parrott’s hat-trick in a 3-2 victory has secured a play-off semi-final against Czech Republic. Win that and Ireland will be one victory from a first World Cup since 2002 and a first tournament since Euro 2016. Browne made his international debut one year after the latter tournament in a friendly defeat to Mexico in New York.
“I remember the Mexico fans, they were crazy – that stands out,” he says of the 2017 match, which finished 3-1. “I just remember having an enormous sense of pride. When you’re playing, you don’t really think like that, but looking at it now it’s actually unbelievable – Mexico in New York, my first trip.”
His smile fades, though, as he adds: “I think my Irish career has been really disappointing. That might sound harsh, but it’s true. We haven’t qualified for anything and it goes hand-in-hand. No matter how well you’re doing personally, if you’re not getting to tournaments, then you’re not doing enough.
“I think every player in the squad would think like that. It’s the bigger picture I find disappointing, rather than myself, but you take accountability for yourself first, of course.
“When I was coming through, the older generation – who’d done it, got to a tournament – were just finishing, so it was a bit of a transition. It was tough because we weren’t winning often and it wasn’t just down to transition, we didn’t do well enough.
“Then Stephen Kenny came in with a whole new approach. It was a massive ask. People had question marks. But I do think he probably did change the culture within the team.
“He wanted us to do everything right, we just didn’t get the results. We definitely competed and went toe-to-toe with some unbelievable countries. He’d done it with the 21s, hadn’t he? They did so well and it was strange – why can’t you play that way with the seniors?
Alan Browne with former Republic of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny ahead of an away match against the Netherlands in 2023. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
“But there was a drop in quality. Before you had players from the Premier League. During my time it wasn’t that – myself included. I’ve played Championship football my whole life. So he was trying to go the extra mile with a lack of quality and new, young players. I’ve sympathy for him, he worked so hard to succeed for his country, he loves his country. But it’s starting to change again, there are players in the Premier League again.”
And the Czech Republic?
“It’s huge. Like I said, I haven’t been in a squad that’s qualified and it would be unbelievable for the team, the staff and fans – I don’t think we’ve given them enough over the last few years. It would give the country a massive lift – I know those last two results sent it into oblivion.
“People will think we’ve done the hard part, or the impossible part, but it’ll be even tougher now, because there’s expectation.”
At this point, Browne’s Boro colleague Tommy Conway sounds a foghorn through the door. They’ve something going at Boro and it will all make the weeks and months ahead stimulating for Browne. Last May, he experienced Sunderland’s promotion, albeit as a player returning from injury. Then he went to Carlow to participate in a coaching course.
“I went into it thinking, ‘I might like it, I might not, but I’ll never know’. I found it difficult and interesting at the same time. I did enjoy it and it’s always on my mind now.”
Observing Hellberg has only added to Browne’s curiosity. He is hugely impressed by the Swede in just over two months on Teesside. Browne uses the word “detail” five times in a couple of minutes when discussing Hellberg, his 45-minute training ground meetings and in-game “tweaks”.
He also says the manager has brought “assurance”. “When we go behind, he’s so calm and composed. When you see what he has said coming to fruition, it’s so assuring. He knows what he’s talking about.
“Promotion is going to be difficult, but we’ve a chance. We’re full of confidence, assurance in ourselves. We know what we’ve to do, how to beat the opposition, which is really important. It’s the detail. It’s a really good feeling, I’m really positive.”