MATT Crooks is recalling - kind of - the "bizarre" moment that Michael Carrick first walked into Middlesbrough as head coach, and you can't help but suspect he's not quite telling the full story.

"It was weird," says Crooks.

There are chuckles from the Boro media staff in the background.

"Oh come on, I wasn't that bad," laughs the Boro midfielder turned striker. Crooks, you see, is a Manchester United fan, so was slightly starstruck when the new boss first stepped into Rockliffe at the end of October.

"It was weird for me. I'd grown up watching him at Old Trafford for a long period of time, so it was weird being coached by him.

"But he has been top drawer with everyone, he's doing a really good job, with Woody (Jonathan Woodgate) and Danksy (Aaron Danks) and Grant (Leadbitter) as well.

"You have to take on everything he says because the career he's had. Maybe sometimes if a manager comes in and hasn't had that level of elite football, sometimes it's, I don't know... but you listen to him a bit more because you know he's done it and been at the very top.

"You just have to extract as much from him as you can. Sometimes in meetings he'll talk about Fergie, but he doesn't like talking about his own career, which is a shame because I'd love to sit and chat to him for ages. But he's very modest in that respect."

READ MORE:

It just so happens that modest is the perfect description for Crooks as well.

In conversation with the regional press, Crooks plays down how well and quickly he's adapted to life as a striker and is equally as keen to brush off talk about being a fan favourite. In football terms, he's very much the humble hero.

In an entertaining quarter of an hour, we get through a lot. He talks playing up-front and recalls his very first experience of leading the line as a kid at Hartlepool United. He chuckles as he explains how he realised that studying Erling Haaland wasn't going to be particularly helpful. And he gives us a peep behind the curtain into the Boro dressing room and the battle to be the squad's best table tennis player.

Crooks is talking to the press after spending an hour in the company of local schoolchildren at an MFC Foundation event, which was part of the Premier League Inspires programme. After showing their presentation - the theme environmental sustainability and named Tree-Tree-Treessiders - the kids ask Crooks, nicknamed, of course, Tree, a series of questions.

"These are better than what those lads will ask," says Crooks, pointing to the press in attendance.

The 29-year-old puts the kids at ease. It's this personable manner - as well as his performances on the pitch of course - that have helped Crooks establish himself as a fan favourite on Teesside, despite only being at the club since the summer of 2021.

"I don't know, I just talk to people...fan favourite? I don't know," says Crooks, quizzed on his popularity.

"It's nice to be nice, isn't it. That's all there is too it. I try to be a nice guy at training, try to be nice outside of training. That's just life isn't it, be nice and people will be nice to you."

That's why Crooks took Martin Payero under his wing last year. The Argentinian midfielder arrived alone and unable to speak the language. Crooks did all he could to help.

"Martin was on his own and I'd just started my Spanish lessons, so everyone was thinking it's nice from me, I was probably being a bit selfish and getting my Spanish lessons in at the same time," laughs Crooks.

"Martin is a nice kid. Obviously he found it tough. We were playing in a similar position. I got along with him well, we had a bond, I still speak to him now even though he's in Argentina.

"It wasn't just a case of him being here and I feel sorry for him, he's a genuinely nice kid and I got along with him."

It's the same when Boro's Academy players step up into the first team.

Crooks says: "I just treat them as I would the rest of the team. If we speak about Hayden (Hackney), for example, he's fit in perfectly with the group. Again, he's such a nice lad, even though he beat me at table tennis again today. It's doing my head in. That's twice now."

That obviously leads to the question of who's the dressing room champion?

"Duncan (Watmore) was up there," says Crooks.

"Boles (Marc Bola) is good, he has a nice backhand, honestly he's like Federer. Dael or Boles. I'm mid-table.

"We've been through phases. We had pool when I first joined, that was the main thing, then we moved onto darts, we were going mad for darts for a bit.

"Now it's table tennis and chess, the lads love chess at the minute."

The Northern Echo:

Head coach Carrick has certainly made all the right moves since his Boro appointment and part of his success so far has been his ability to think outside the box. Chuba Akpom has been a sensation as a No.10, Marcus Forss has impressed on the right and Crooks showed why his boss felt he'd be a success as a striker, scoring two and creating two more in four starts as the line-leading frontman.

Cameron Archer earned himself a starting shot and has impressed in the last two games but Crooks will have a key role to play between now and the end of the season. Playing up-front wasn't a completely new role for Crooks, but his only experience came very early in his career, and not too far from the Riverside.

"I played for Hartlepool on my first loan and Charlie Wyke got ill during the day of a night match," Crooks recalls.

"He tried 45 minutes and couldn't do it, we didn't have any other strikers so the gaffer just said, 'you're big, go and give us 45 minutes'.

"I did a job for that one game. My loan wasn't going so well so I ended up going to Accrington, and that's who we'd played that night when I played up front, so they thought I was a striker and signed me as a striker.

"I ended up playing 20 games or so as a striker and I've missed about 15, 20 chances. It took me until the next season to get my first goal when I was playing midfield again!"

"So it's not a familiar role, but like the gaffer said, I'm doing it in training and trying to get used to it. I'm trying to get on the end of things and score some goals.

"It's about being in the right place at the right time sometimes and the ball seemed to drop to me. I don't know, I don't know if it's a natural thing, it just seemed to fall for me on the odd occasion."

In better understanding the role, Crooks set about studying the very best, but soon realised it wasn't particularly helpful.

"I started watching Haaland clips because he's alright isn't he, he's scored a few goals," laughed Crooks.

"We're a similar build but I was watching it thinking that's not me, I couldn't just stand there. He's got the mental strength of being there and waiting and knowing it will come. I did watch a few Haaland clips but I couldn't play like that.

"I've not really watched anyone else. I'm just trying to integrate it into my play and learning on the job."

He's done a good job as well, though he'd probably be too modest to admit it.