Albion captain Greening: Kamara, Koumas and McShane must know now they were wrong to leave us

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Striker Kamara, playmaker Koumas and defender McShane all parted company with the Baggies after they failed to regain their Barclays Premier League status to join Fulham, Wigan and Sunderland, respectively.

Bouncing back: Jonathan Greening celebrates with fans after West Brom were promoted to the Premier League

But the trio enjoyed only limited success and battled against relegation while Albion finally clinched a return to the top flight and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Greening said: "It's hard when the Premier League comes calling with the kind of money there is. I've been there and you want to test yourself in the best league in the world.

"I think all three of them enjoyed working with the gaffer (Tony Mowbray) and probably in the back of their minds they thought 'maybe I will do one more year and see if we get promoted'.

"But they had to make a decision and moved on and maybe most of them look back now and think it's probably been a bad decision.

"Kamara has hardly played this year, McShane started the season but has hardly played for a good 20 games while Koumas has been in and out of the side.

"They probably look back and think 'I could have been in the semi-finals of the FA Cup and got promoted as part of a great West Brom team for the future - and playing really good football'."

Greening, who moved to the Hawthorns from Middlesbrough four years ago, added: "The lads who stayed like myself, Paul Robinson, Kevin Phillips and a few others probably benefited from it.

"We have had another year under the gaffer and we are probably even better than we were last year."