There’s been so much change at Rockliffe since the last time Ryan Giles was here, and yet, as he sits down, dressed once more in Boro red, there’s a feeling of familiarity and belonging.

It’s been 18 months since Giles left the club after a successful year-long loan move. Even after two failed attempts to bring him to the club, the feeling that Giles was destined to one day end up back at Boro was impossible to shake. For him too, the delight and relief to be back here is plain to see.

It’s been a tough period for the attack-minded left-back since his initial Boro spell ended - and that’s before even considering the cruel manner in which his Riverside return would end on Monday night against Sunderland. As far as this conversation is concerned, that own goal has yet to happen.

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He sits down with local media including Teesside Live at Rocklife days after his second Boro debut at Preston North End. As respectfully as he can be to Hull City, he discusses his hopes of making his second Boro loan switch a permanent one, and he reflects on 18 tough months, poignantly discussing the expectation that will be on his shoulders at Boro after his first spell, and his understanding of the opportunity he has on Teesside again now. He might not be a native Teessider, but there’s certainly a steeliness within.

“I honestly believe I come back here now in a much stronger position than I was two years ago,” he insists. “I need to use that. I’ve got to do well on the pitch, of course I have. I know I have. I know there is going to be an expectation for me to do well and come back like I was. I expect that of myself though, and I put that pressure on myself as well. I don’t regret the spells I’ve had since though. It’s all part of learning and growing as an individual and I think I have done that.

“I’d enjoyed success in loan spells before Boro as well and then Luton came. It was tough for me; it was a tough time. From there, I went to Hull and it’s been ups and downs there really. But I don’t regret anything I’ve done. I believe everything happens for a reason and I see it all as a learning curve.”

In particular, his spell at Luton was the biggest learning curve. The Hatters ultimately outbid Boro for Giles in the summer of 2023, with the left-back feeling mixed emotions. He loved his time at Boro and was hoping for a return. Out of his hands in the main, he took solace in the fact that the Luton switch at least offered him an opportunity to realise his dream of being a Premier League player.

It didn’t last as long as he might have hoped though. He started the first three games of the Premier League season, but all ended in defeat, and with nine goals shipped. He was taken out of the side by Rob Edwards and made only two more league starts before his January switch to Hull City.

“At Luton, we didn’t really have much of the ball,” he reflects. “Obviously, a lot of it was without the ball and that was something I felt I could improve a lot in my game anyway. I feel like, even with how it went there, it’s something that I have improved on quite a lot.

“You learn from a spell like that and having to focus on that more. Obviously when I was here the first time, it was just so free-flowing and ultimately the sort of football I want to play. Luton was the complete opposite, but that means I had to focus on my weaknesses more, as such.

“I think I’ve done that, I really do. Even though it hasn’t gone as well as people would have thought, for me, it was a learning curve, a good experience and something I can take with me and hopefully people now see the benefits and improvements from that.”

Sometimes in football it just works. A particular player, at a particular club, with a particular manager and a particular style of play. It just fits naturally. With Michael Carrick and Boro, that’s exactly what Giles believes.

“I think the gaffer just played to my strengths, and played me to my strengths,” he says. “That was important. Playing with the players I did back then helped as well. Obviously I had Chuba to look for in the box and I knew if I put it to him he’d put it away. It just worked and seemed to fit well.

“The gaffer came in, put a system together and the role I had to play was playing to my strengths and that’s ultimately why it got the best out of me. It was a free-flowing team that kept the ball really well. On the other side, the belief he showed in me, and the consistency I had in games, was perfect.

“I know, I wasn’t perfect in every game - it wasn’t all positive. There were a handful of games where I would look back and think, ‘I didn’t have a good game there’. But he stuck by me and told me to keep going and gave me the belief and confidence to do exactly that. That was important."

He continues: “It was a season of ups and downs, and it was massively disappointing [not to get promoted] with the team we had. We had a disappointing start. But then the gaffer came in and implemented the way we started playing. The rhythm we built and momentum in such a short space of time, I’d never been around anything like it. It was amazing.

“You see so many of those lads now kick on and do what they’ve done, it’s brilliant. It feels like an opportunity missed, for sure it does. But that’s football, it can happen. If I’m being honest, you look at the teams who were in the play-offs at the time and we had a real chance. Obviously you can’t get ahead of yourself, but with the squad we had, I really fancied us.

“It was disappointing. But equally, for me personally, it was a brilliant year for me - probably one of the best seasons I’ve ever had. To kick-on from that, get an opportunity to go to the Premier League, because of the platform Middlesbrough gave me, there was a lot to thank the club for.”

He’s hoping to properly thank the club in this latest loan stint. But it’s a different set of team-mates to connect with on this occasion. In terms of personnel, things are a lot different to now. On the back of play-off heartbreak for that Boro side in 2023, the squad was largely disbanded. Giles’s most notable connection on the pitch came with Chuba Akpom - the pair forming such a fruitful partnership with Giles’ quality deliveries and Akpom’s knack for arriving at the right time.

Akpom is no longer at Boro as Giles returns. He left for Ajax that same summer, and in the same month that Giles finally made his Boro return, Akpom made a loan switch to Lille in France. It wasn’t Boro, sadly, but at least it wasn’t Sunderland, as was reported at one stage during the window.

Despite the change in personnel, Giles is convinced he can be just as effective as last time. He said: “I think it will be different because there are different players here now with different profiles and different strengths. Not every player is the same. But in terms of the squad and how we play, I don’t think it’s too different. For me, coming in now, it’s trying to replicate what we did last time and then going one better. That’s what I aim to do.”