Matt Maher: Chris Brunt will be remembered as a West Brom legend
Chris Brunt has always baulked at suggestions he was becoming an Albion legend but whether the Northern Irishman likes it or not, that is precisely how he will be remembered.
Through 13 seasons, more than 400 appearances and countless memories, Brunt has been a constant, dependable presence at The Hawthorns.
He will forever be associated with a period in the club’s history which, while not without lows, has seen many more highs, a key component in helping the Baggies become an established top flight force for the first time since the 1980s.
News of his impending departure did not, admittedly, come as a big surprise. At the age of 35 and with Albion on course for a Premier League return, the time feels right for a parting of ways. Brunt is not yet ready to end his playing career and came close to joining Stoke in January before a proposed deal collapsed at the 11th hour.
That doesn’t mean yesterday’s announcement wasn’t greeted with sadness by supporters, the greatest shame being current circumstances will prevent Brunt from receiving the send-off he deserves. The fact he will leave the field for the final time in an Albion shirt to empty stands, unavoidable though it may be, feels entirely wrong.
It would be more fitting if Brunt’s final act for the Baggies was to score the goal which takes them back to the top flight. Though a season in which he has made just five league appearances to date might suggest that is unlikely, the one thing Albion fans have learned above all else about Brunt is to never write him off.
Promotion this season would be his third since arriving at The Hawthorns in a £3million move from Sheffield Wednesday in August 2007, the most expensive acquisition of a summer in which Tony Mowbray looked to reshape a team beaten by Derby in the previous season’s play-off final.
Though Mowbray could never have known it at the time, in Brunt and James Morrison (who arrived from Middlesbrough a week earlier) he was signing two of the last great club stalwarts. Football has changed an awful lot since and it is unlikely Albion will ever again recruit players whose service to the club lasts anywhere near so long. With Morrison having hung up his boots last October, Brunt’s exit really is the end of an era.
Early success helped lay the foundations for what was to follow for Brunt. A regular in Mowbray’s team which secured promotion and the Championship title, he was named player of the year for the 2008-09 season and though it ended in relegation, there was an immediate return to the top flight under Roberto Di Matteo in 2010.
Albion would remain in the Premier League for the next eight seasons after that with Brunt a constant presence. No player made more than his 269 appearances, no player was involved in more wins while only Peter Odemwingie and Morrison scored more.
Managers and team-mates came and went yet Brunt was always there and always favoured. Signed as a left-winger by Mowbray, it would require less space to list the positions in which he didn’t play, while he was named captain by Roy Hodgson in 2011. Though the armband might have changed hands on occasion on the pitch since, it is Brunt who has remained the spiritual leader.
There have been low points. There were times in the early years of his Albion career when Brunt divided opinion among supporters, while in February 2016 he was hit by a coin thrown by a Baggies fan following an FA Cup defeat at Reading.
The actions of one mindless idiot, fans showed their true affection a week later by organising bucket collections for charity ahead of the visit of Crystal Palace.
Cruelly for Brunt, an even more hefty blow came that afternoon when he ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments and was ruled out of that summer’s European Championships. The 55 appearances he made for Northern Ireland while at The Hawthorns means he is the club’s most capped player.
The good memories comfortably outweigh the bad and both on-and-off the pitch Brunt, an unassuming, humble man and model professional, has always embodied the values to which every club should aspire.
For Albion, he has been a terrific ambassador, generous with his time and understanding of the fanbase, maintaining a regular presence at supporters’ club events.
This season has been comfortably Brunt’s quietest. He has made only nine appearances, the last coming in the FA Cup defeat to Newcastle.
But while his Albion career might be drawing to a close, it is not over yet. For Brunt, the coming weeks offer the chance to add a fairytale finish.
