Martin Albrechtsen opens up on his big West Brom regret

The Dane, a club-record purchase of £2.7million when Gary Megson bought him to the Baggies from FC Copenhagen in 2004, spent four seasons at the club.

The versatile defender made 138 appearances in his time at the club, which included the Great Escape in 2005, relegation and a title win and promotion from the Championship.

But Albrechtsen was unable to strike a new deal after promotion to the top flight under Tony Mowbray and he exited for Championship side Derby County after the contract dispute. The four-cap Danish international spent just a single campaign at Pride Park before returning to his homeland.

“We had some talks and we were quite close to doing a new deal,” Albrechtsen told Express & Star’s Albion podcast Baggies Broadcast.

“We just had some small bumps, issues, West Brom didn’t want to give that little more than I wanted – it sounds greedy now, but that was the situation.

“Derby came and offered me a good contract, I can’t remember what I was thinking, but I think I thought if West Brom doesn’t want to give me what I want then maybe I thought I needed a new club. I remember if West Brom went down again my contract went down, the Derby contract was the same for the years.

“Looking back I actually regret it a little bit, I had a good time at West Brom and it would’ve been nice to be there for maybe six or seven years and play in the Premier League again.”

Albrechtsen, now 42, still plays amateur football in Denmark having left top-flight Brondby in 2017.

“I still think when I look back on my career that I shouldn’t have left, I should’ve just signed a contract and say f*** it, it doesn’t matter about the last thousand pounds per week or whatever we were fighting about,” he said.

“I would’ve played in the Premier League in my fifth year and maybe stayed for six or seven years and had a good time, instead of choosing being a bit more secure with Derby, which showed to be a bad decision, because I was only there for one year and then I moved back to Denmark.

“It’s something that I regret quite a lot, actually, when I think back on it.”

The centre-half, who spent many of his Albion days playing at full-back, admitted his time in the East Midlands was less enjoyable.

He said: “It’s a good club and very friendly club, players and their families have a good time, everyone around is friendly.

“I remember in my first game at Derby, we lost 1-0 at home and as I was walking back from the dressing rooms to my car people were shouting “f*** off” and “get back to West Brom”, they were very aggressive and unfriendly, I remember thinking ‘this is not a nice place’, but they were frustrated.

“I remember thinking about the difference between the mentality in between Derby and West Brom fans.”

The popular defender returned to The Hawthorns late last year to take part in Chris Brunt and James Morrison’s charity fixture.

n Albrechtsen is the first confirmed Baggies Broadcast summer special guest. His episode will be available on all good providers later this year.