'I wanted to leave': How West Brom hero Jonas Olsson almost left Albion for Champions League club in 2012
Jonas Olsson is a player who will always be synonymous with Albion's eight year stint in the Premier League from 2010 to 2018.
The big Swede, who arrived from Dutch side NEC Nijmegen for £800,000 on deadline day in 2008, became a firm fan's favourite across his nine year stay at The Hawthorns.
He would go on to make more than 260 appearances for Albion across one season in the Championship, where he helped the club to promotion, and eight in the top flight.
However, it could well have been very different had it not been for an England manager resigning and being replaced by Olsson's club manager at the time.
Appearing on an episode of the Undr the Cosh podcast, Olsson was questioned about high profile transfer window controversies at Albion during his time at the club, in particular those involving Saido Berahino and Peter Odemwingie.
And during the discussion, Olsson revealed how he almost signed for Tottenham Hotspur back in 2012 - after the club had qualified for the Champions League.
But for reasons linked to the changing of the England manager, a move never materialised.
He said: "There were times at West Brom when I wanted to leave, I was quite close to joining Spurs at one time when Harry Redknapp was the manager, I wanted to leave.
"I wanted to leave, but I also realised you have to conduct yourself where you are at that moment, that was always key to me in my career, to honour their faith and then hopefully the next step will come.
"For me it didn't happen, Spurs decided to go another way and they sacked Harry Redknapp.
"It was 2012 when (Fabio) Capello resigned as England manager and Harry Redknapp had done well at Spurs to get them to the Champions League. He wanted the job but then he was sacked by Spurs.
"Roy Hodgson then went from West Brom to England and (Andre) Villas-Boas took the Spurs job and he didn't want a centre half of my profile."
Olsson remained at Albion until March 2017, when after just seven appearances that season, Albion and Olsson agreed to mutually terminate his contract - and he returned to Sweden with Djurgardens.
The defender did return to England for a short spell with Wigan Athletic before retiring.
