"But I was born five minutes from the Riverside Stadium, my childhood was in Pallister Park, I was brought up in Park End - we can take it.
"We can't change that that's happened. We need to plan for a new challenge, the coming campaign in the Championship.
"We are here and it is important that the club, the town, the supporters, we all stick together, prepare ourselves for this new challenge.
"We have a clear objective and the clear objective is that Middlesbrough Football Club returns to the Premier League as soon as it possibly can.
"There is nothing certain in football, but we have one objective and that is back to the Premier League."