Ben Foster has admitted that the thought about retiring before leaving West Brom due to the monotony of playing for the Black Country club.
The 35-year-old goalkeeper joined Watford in the summer after seven seasons at The Hawthorns and has managed to show he is still one of the best shot-stoppers in the Premier League with some fantastic performances this term.
While Foster may go down in history as one of the best goalkeepers West Brom have ever had, the former England international left a sour taste in the mouths of Albion supporters when he joined Watford last year, despite promising that he wouldn’t leave if the club was relegated.
However his latest comments suggest that he had to take the decision to quit the Baggies in order to spark his will to keep on playing.
“I did think about retiring, definitely,” Foster told the Daily Mail. “I had been at West Brom too long. It was monotonous and I reached a point where I asked myself, ‘Do I really want this anymore?'”
OPINION
Foster definitely left West Brom on bad terms in the summer. He has since explained why he said what he did and why he eventually left. Plus, for any Albion supporter who watched the Channel 4 documentary The Football Club: Artist in Residence, you will probably understand where Foster is coming from here because the interview he gave in that was pretty damning. Foster has had serious knee injuries in his career and he is now approaching his 36th birthday. Even though he is ageing and the physical side of the game might get the better of him from time to time, he is still one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League and let’s face it, he does not belong in the Championship. Foster will still go down as one of the best goalkeepers to ever play for West Brom, he is certainly the best since Russell Hoult anyway.