‘Unbelievable’ – Slaven Bilic delivers ‘big thank you’ to ‘instrumental’ West Brom talent
West Brom manager Slaven Bilic has heaped praise on “unbelievable” character Chris Brunt for his “instrumental” role at the club.
The veteran midfielder will end a 13-year association with the Baggies this summer, and could make his final outing for the club in Wednesday night’s clash with QPR.
That game will ultimately decide Albion’s automatic promotion fate, and should he make an appearance, would represent Brunt’s 421st in a West Brom shirt.
And his manager has lavished praise on him for his work on and off the pitch in recent times.
As quoted by the Birmingham Mail, he said: “If there was a guy who didn’t have information, and was not inside the training ground or the dressing room, or The Hawthorns, or hotels that we stay in, and they counted his minutes, they’d say he did not have an important role.
“He has been instrumental. On the pitch when we’ve needed him, I don’t remember him putting a foot wrong. On the contrary, he helped us in those games big time.
“Off the pitch, around the place, in training… I’ve been around a long time, and he’s an unbelievable character – in a positive way.
“He’s Mr Albion, and I’ve told him already, when we announced that he was going to leave at the end of the season. What I said then, I can only repeat. That is a big thank you.”
It’s going to be mightily difficult to say goodbye to Brunt at the end of this season.
There are a whole generation of Baggies fans who have grown up with him as a key component of Albion’s side, and his presence around the club, based on these comments from Bilic, will be a big, big miss.
It would be a wonderfully fitting send-off if he could make an appearance in a win that would take us back to the Premier League on Wednesday night, but with so much at stake and such fine margins in operation, we might have to settle for the prospect of the manager putting the interests of the team above any kind of sentimentality.
Based on what we know about him, that’s what Brunt would want too.
In other West Brom news, Hal Robson-Kanu has sent a message to this Leeds player after Albion’s loss handed the Whites promotion.
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