AITOR KARANKA will head to Selhurst Park this afternoon and he could easily have been in the home dug-out had he not chosen the Middlesbrough project over the Crystal Palace job three-and-a-half years ago.

When Karanka accepted the challenge of reviving Boro and leading a promotion charge after discussions with chairman Steve Gibson in November 2013, he had the option of taking over the Eagles instead.

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish had tried to persuade him to replace Ian Holloway, with relegation to the Championship looming, until Tony Pulis took on the role and turned things around.

The lure of a move to the Premier League must have been attractive for Karanka as he looked to take on his first frontline manager’s position, particularly with his close friend Jose Mourinho just down the road at Chelsea at that time.

But Karanka felt Boro, where he had previously come close to moving as a player, was a better starting point to dip his feet into management after receiving plenty of good vibes about life at the Riverside.

He has no regrets either about the route he took.

Karanka said: “It was the right one and this is the time to once again admit I was right.

“At that time to start my career I needed a team, a club, which could offer me that confidence and at that time Steve Gibson game me that confidence.

“To start your career without experience in the Premier League would have been difficult. Three years later, the only thing that I can say is I was right.”

Pulis ended up guiding Palace to safety and, despite a couple of further changes of managers since, Palace have remained in the top-flight since then, while Karanka went about leading Boro to promotion in his second full season.

Both clubs in the relegation fight in the remaining few months of this campaign, with many believing former Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce will eventually get Palace moving in the right direction.

Karanka said: “Yes I am surprised they have not got going yet but when you have his experience, a squad with the experience of those players, the quality of those players, the reaction can come. I hope not on Saturday, but the following Saturday.

“We have to think about ourselves, think how good we have been when we have played against teams in our same position, and how good we have been performing.

“If we lose the game playing our best, for me it will be another game. But if we win this game it can be good. But, once again, playing against our direct opponent, the main thing is to keep growing, to keep adding experience, to keep competing against everybody and going there to try to win the game.”

Middlesbrough head to Crystal Palace having watched the footage of how Sunderland hit Allardyce’s side for four at the start of the month. The fans turned on Palace that afternoon. Karanka is not expecting a repeat.

He said: “If you go to the pitch and make the mistakes we made against them at home and concede in the first minute, it will be the opposite. We need to think it will be a tough game, 95 minutes.

“I would like to go to the changing room in the first half the same way Sunderland did, winning 4-0. But I think it is going to be difficult. It is going to be tough and we have to be as consistent as we are. We have to try to attack and to score goals.”

Karanka suggested he will not treat this game as ‘a cup final’ because 12 matches still remain; he is though confident his well-organised team will stay up even if they have the worst goalscoring record in the division.

He said: “The players’ commitment and how much they want to improve, to learn, to arrive now in February with 24 players always ready to play, shows we can stay up.

“There are not many squads with this number of players ready to play. When we analyse our games, we have competed against every single team. It shows us we can be positive.

“My biggest thing is that I can be positive because the players are showing me they can be positive. The main thing is to try to win as many games as possible.

“If you can’t win, at least you don’t lose them. But our mentality is to try to win every single game. But we are a team who was playing in the Championship last season and we don’t have that experience.

“Going the way we are going this season, growing in the way that we are growing, every single day I can feel they are more confident, making the right steps and it shows me that I can be positive.”