Greening: I’m so glad I stayed

EXCLUSIVE 

Jonathan Greening is Albion’s great survivor and the one star who stayed loyal when all around him were jumping ship, writes Steve Madeley.

Now, as the Baggies skipper prepares to lead the team out at Wembley tomorrow, he has a polite but pointed message for the former team mates who thought the grass was greener elsewhere.

As others surveyed the wreckage of last May’s play-off final and bolted, Greening signed on for another four years.

Eleven months on, as two of the highest profile departures languish on the fringes of teams near the foot of the Premier League, captain Greening is just one win away from an FA Cup final.

With some justification, the 29-year-old reckons he might have the last laugh.

“Some good players left last summer, like Diomansy Kamara and Jason Koumas, but things haven’t worked out as they would have wanted,” says Greening.

“They haven’t played as much football as they would have liked at their new clubs, and when they look where we are now maybe they are wondering whether they did the right thing.

“They might look at us at Wembley this weekend and wish they were still here.

“It goes to show that you’re not always better off moving on. Sometimes you’re better staying where you are and trying to rebuild.”

While Koumas and Kamara rushed for the exits last May to be followed by Curtis Davies and Nathan Ellington, Greening instructed his agent to open talks with Albion.

A couple of weeks later a deal was done to keep the former Manchester United and Middlesbrough man at The Hawthorns beyond his 32nd birthday.

If he isn’t already, Greening will be part of the furniture at Albion when his current deal ends in three more years, and he already has his sights on ending his career at the club whose spell he has fallen under.

He admits, however, that it was not love at first sight when Middlesbrough accepted Albion’s £1.25m bid for his services almost four years ago.

“You never know what’s around the corner in football,” he says. “I still had three years left on my contract at Middlesbrough when they told me they had accepted a bid.

“I had got three player-of-the-year awards the previous year including supporters’ player and players’ player.

“It was a bit of a shock to be told I could leave but I think Steve McClaren wanted to go in a new direction and he brought in Gaizka Mendieta and signed Bolo Zenden on a permanent deal.

“He said he couldn’t guarantee me first-team football, which at the time was a bit of a shame.

“But it’s turned out to be the best thing for me because I am sitting here as captain of Albion.

“Everything about this club has been amazing for me. I’ve got three more years after this and if I see that out I’ll have been here for seven years.

“And, fingers crosses, I want to stay here until the end of my career.”

Greening is honest enough to admit defeat to Derby at Wembley a year ago set him thinking.

But while Kamara and Ellington had their bags packed virtually before the team left the national stadium, Greening’s heart was pushing him in a different direction.

“Going back into the dressing room after the play-off final was horrible,” he recalls. “But that is in the past now and we have moved on.

“Of course I considered what I should do, as you do after days like that. But deep down I was happy and I never wanted to go anywhere else.

“Thankfully my future was sorted out early on. The club offered me a new contract and I had no hesitation in staying here because I love it here.”

There was better news to come for Greening, as manager Tony Mowbray looked around his new-look squad for the man to take over the captain’s armband following Davies’s move to Villa.

There were more obvious, more experienced candidates in Dean Kiely, Paul Robinson, Neil Clement and Kevin Phillips, but Mowbray turned to the quiet Greening to be his voice on the field.

It took many by surprise, not least the man himself.

But eight months into his first season as skipper he believes the responsibility has benefitted both player and team.

“You would have to ask the gaffer why I am captain,” says Greening.

“I was as gobsmacked as anyone when he told me.

“But I have really enjoyed it. It’s been an amazing season so far and I have only missed one game, through suspension.

“It has probably made me more confident in speaking in front of my team mates.

“I used to speak in front of them if there was something to be said but I wasn’t one of the most talkative people in the changing room.

“Now it has brought more out in me and I am really enjoying encouraging the players, helping them on the pitch and talking to them off the pitch as well.

“It’s probably brought my own game on. I have really enjoyed this season and I think I have been doing OK.

“Portsmouth are a really good team but you are allowed to dream and we’re all dreaming that we can get through and reach the FA Cup final.”

Greening admits the armband has made him more demonstrative, more talkative and even confrontational when required.

But he is not planning to copy the example of a certain Irishman whom he learned under in his former life at Manchester United.

“I’m not a screamer or a shouter but I like to give advice and gee people up and encourage them if they make mistakes,” he says.

“Nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes and has bad games including me.

“Anybody can make a bad pass or not control a ball well so it’s just about talking to people, helping them out and trying to be constructive.

“I played with Roy Keane a few times at Manchester United when I was there.

“I knew him quite well and he was a great player and great captain but I don’t smash players up in the changing room like he did.

“He was always quite nice to me, probably because I was a young boy at the time.

“But I’ve seen him lose his temper quite a few times.”

It was during his formative years at Old Trafford that Greening developed a taste for big occasions.

He travelled with United to two huge finals and was forced to watch from the sidelines.

Now, with seven-year-old daughter Sydney, three-year-old son Troy and pregnant wife Anna leading the supporting cast, he is anxious to take centre-stage as captain in an FA Cup final on May 17.

“I was in the squad for the Cup final between Manchester United and Newcastle but I wasn’t involved in the team or on the bench,” he recalls.

“Then I went to Barcelona for the European Cup Final and got on the bench because Roy Keane and Henning Berg were suspended and Paul Scholes was out.

“It was a great to be involved because you can always learn from these things.”

And it is memories of great days with United that will inspire Greening’s final words to his colleagues before they take to the field tomorrow to try to win a place in the final.

“Teddy Sheringham once told me that when it came to big occasions you had to try not to get too wrapped up in it,” he says.

“That has stuck with me and if young players ask me the same question now that’s what I tell them.

“That’s the thing I learned from seeing big players at Manchester United do well on big occasions and that’s what I try to do now.

“I’ve watched those occasions but if we win on Saturday I will get my chance to actually play in one.

“That would be a dream come true and to do it as captain of Albion, where I now feel like I’m at home, would be so special.”