Sébastien Pocognoli is now a Standard Liege player, having left the club in 2013. Pocognoli then signed for Hamburg, before eventually finding his way into English football with West Brom.
It’s fair to say the defender didn’t exactly have the best of times with West Brom, and on more than one occasion he spoke to the Belgian media about his struggles with the English club, and how he felt aspects of the situation were unfair.
Speaking to Belgian newspaper Het Belang van Limburg, Pocognoli explained: “I was on a contract at West Brom. They had the opportunity to take the option on an additional season and initially also planned to recover some money, but after a conversation with 
my agent they have waived this. I always behave correctly, so they had no reason to be annoying. Brighton? I was happy but they did not look for a deal.”
Brighton manager Chris Hughton has publicly praised Pocognoli, but it seems that his admiration didn’t go as far as trying to sign the permanently after his West Brom exit. Or, perhaps, West Brom wouldn’t have been so helpful in waiving the contract had Pocognoli been joining Brighton and not Standard.
