Marc Albrighton has added an FA Cup final to his impressive CV having come on during the showpiece Wembley clash between Leicester City and Chelsea.
Marc Albrighton explained: “Two days after the season finished, my agent phoned me and said, ‘There’s nothing on the table from Villa.’ So I said, ‘What do you mean there’s nothing?’ He was like, ‘There’s literally not an offer, there’s not an offer there. You’ve got to go to another club. I’ve spoken to a few clubs just in case this scenario happened and they’d like to speak to you.’ At the time I was just like, ‘Can I call you back once I’ve taken all this in?’ In my head, definitely naively, I trusted everything that they said. I don’t know whose decision it was, I still don’t know now. In my head it was, ‘Yeah my contract’s sorted, (Lambert) said it would be sorted towards the end of the season, keep playing your football, keep doing what you’re doing, keep doing well.’ So that’s what I was doing and I just expected a contract. I didn’t expect anything massive because I hadn’t been playing every game, I’d only played bit parts. But whatever was on the table for me I would have accepted, 100 per cent; a one-year or even a pay-as-you-play or whatever. I didn’t even think in my head that I would leave Villa. Once I’d got to grips with the fact that there was no conversation to be had, I phoned my agent back and he named the clubs that were interested. I chose Leicester as my preference and I went there, spoke to the manager, spoke to Steve Walsh on my phone. He was singing my praises, he told me how good it was at Leicester and he sold it for me.”
Albrighton became a Premier League winner in 2016 and scored two in the Champions League in the following season as Leicester were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Atletico Madrid. Albrighton has come up against his former side on seven occasions since his departure while he was an unused sub the last time Villa met Leicester at the King Power Stadium earlier this season.
Marc Albrighton added: “I certainly made the right decision. There were three or four clubs – I won’t name them – that I could have gone to. There were a couple that were changing managers at the time and I think one didn’t even have a manager at the time. I think a chief executive at one club wanted me but I didn’t buy into that. I wanted to be wanted by a manager. I looked at Leicester and the stability I felt they had there was long-term. The players that they had. They were my kind of players who want to work hard for each other. It was the best move I could have hoped for. And, as upset as I was to leave Villa, them not offering me a contract was the best thing that’s happened to me because anything that was on the table; whether it be a year or pay-as-you-play, anything, I would have signed because that was my club. I just totally loved the club. I knew no different. That was my life. Aston Villa was my life since I was young. I’d probably say I was getting a bit complacent there and never really pushed on as much as I could. I’m not just blaming other people for that, that was down to me as well. I never kicked on as much as I could. Going to Leicester, I was always known as the kid from the youth team at Villa. That’s how I felt. Once I had gone to Leicester I was a signing. I was brought in. So somebody along the way has gone, ‘I like Marc Albrighton. We’ll sign Marc Albrighton’. That sat well with me.”
