'This is your fault': Former West Brom striker reveals frank Slaven Bilic exchange amid West Brom's Covid promotion close call

If they can secure a return to the top flight this season it would bring an end to what has felt like five long seasons in the Championship.

But there is no doubt that if they do go up this season - it will be in very different fashion to the last time Albion secured promotion back in 2020.

Under Slaven Bilic - Albion were on course to have their destiny and return to the promised land wrapped up with a handful of games to play - and then a global pandemic hit.

The Covid-19 pandemic struck and brought a halt to football and Albion's blistering form.

After returning to action in June, Albion won just three of their remaining games and only secured automatic promotion on the final day of the season with a 2-2 draw against QPR.

Having lost the penultimate game against Huddersfield - it look as though they could be pipped by Brentford but the Bees gave Albion a lifeline as they lost their last two matches.

In the aftermath claims were made that Albion's fitness issues after the Covid break had been the catalyst for their late slip up.

But former striker Charlie Austin has revealed what he believes almost cost Albion a return to the Premier League - and what he said to manager Slaven Bilic after the Baggies almost blew promotion.

Speaking on the Undr the Cosh podcast this week, he explained what he said in an exchange with Bilic after Albion's rotten end of the season form.

He said: "If Covid didn't happen we would have p****d the league.

"If it wasn't for that break we would have because after it we were a shambles, and it went right to the end. We fell over the line.

"I remember saying to Slav in a meeting in Covid after that Huddersfield game, I said, 'this is your fault', in front of everyone.

"Looking back I shouldn't have really said it but I knew what I was saying, it just came out the wrong way.

"I said 'you've s**t yourself and got nervous', which he did. He filtered to the staff and then the players and as much as we could string wins together, we won something like three in ten after Covid and fell over the line.

"It went down like a led balloon but we were fine.

"I did ring him to tell him he didn't come across how I meant it, but the relationship after that was good."

Albion did earn promotion but for Austin his Albion career didn't last much longer. After the club tried to move him on to Derby in the summer, he signed for QPR in January ahead of a permanent move back to the London club.