Marc still carries a child-like drive, says Albion boss
Carlos Corberan sees Marc Albrighton’s child-like desire and ambition as key to the impact he will make at Albion.
The 33-year-old winger was Corberan’s second January deadline day recruit having checked in on loan from Leicester.
Albrighton has played almost 300 games for the Foxes in nearly nine years but arrived at The Hawthorns on a temporary deal in a search for more minutes.
Albrighton is likely to make his debut against Coventry tonight as Albion hunt a return to winning ways.
“It’s like having someone who has that ambition to make an impact in football who is 18-years-old,” Corberan said. “He has that ambition to play, that’s why he left his position in the Premier League – he’s not a player who wasn’t playing, in the last games he’s been playing.
“He’s a player who is ambitious enough and who has a level of experience that he wants to keep playing and enjoying his football and he is feeling fine to do it.
“For me, when a player arrives who is 30 years old, or 32 years old, some players don’t decrease and they have ambition and desire to keep going. He has the desire of a child.
“It’s necessary to have that. The past won’t help you make an impact in the present in football. What you have done, you have done. It’s about your mentality in the present.
“It happens to coaches, to players, to journalists, to everyone. We can help the organisation we work to have the determination and ambition to do it.
“I have found a player who has made a big impact in the Premier League in his career, but he has a big ambition to keep making an impact in the place he is working.”
Albrighton followed central midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah through the door at The Hawthorns on deadline day. Chalobah, 28, checks in on an 18-month deal from Fulham.
He was one of the head coach’s initial targets for the position Corberan wanted to strengthen, in midfield.
Albrighton was almost joined in the Baggies ranks by another loan winger, Chelsea teen Omari Hutchinson, 19, but that move went uncompleted, meaning Karlan Grant’s proposed loan to Swansea fell through.
“First of all, the first idea was to add one player in one position. That player was Chalobah, because we needed to have this position covered by someone who can play as a six or as an eight,” Corberan explained. “We wanted to have someone in this position.
“After the injury of Phillips, it affected our thinking – we needed a winger.
“We lost one of the wingers we have, and it’s difficult to replace Phillips. We aren’t talking just about his skills on the football pitch, we are talking about someone who has a level of ethic, of work, of professionalism.
“That’s why it wasn’t just experience of the job, it was also what he can do on the pitch.
“Finding someone of this level wasn’t easy, but I am very, very pleased with the player we bring into this position. They are very similar players in terms of what they give.”
Corberan added on Premier League, FA Cup and Community Shield winner Albrighton: “In terms of the career of Marc, I don’t have words.
“There aren’t any more words to say about him that haven’t already been said. The title he won, the impact in the Premier League, the highest level in the world.
“It was a high challenge for my club to replace Phillips, and it was very good work by head of recruitment Ian (Pearce), and Ron (Gourlay, CEO), to bring in someone like him – with Marc, we have covered it.”
