Clarets keeper Jensen wants to follow in West Brom's footsteps

4:20pm Monday 19th May 2008

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By Suzanne Geldard »

BRIAN Jensen is desperate to follow in the footsteps of his former club next season.

The Burnley goalkeeper was delighted to see West Bromwich Albion win promotion to the Premier League as champions on the final day of the Championship season.

But he admitted he would have loved the Clarets to trade places with the Baggies.

"There is always a place in my heart for them because they were my first English club, but at the end of the day I would rather it be us going up," said Jensen, who spent three years at the Hawthorns after signing from AZ Alkmaar in March 2000.

"West Brom always had the potential to be up and down but their focus now is on staying in the Premier League."

Although Burnley's push for the play-offs fell away in the closing stages of the season, with the Clarets disappointed to finish in 13th place in the end, Jensen believes the squad is improving year on year.

With five years' service at Turf Moor - and counting after this week agreeing a new two-year deal - he is well-placed to pass judgement as the club's current longest serving player.

"After my first season, under Stan Ternent, about 18-20 players were released so we were short-staffed for a time," said the 32-year-old, who arrived at Turf Moor in the summer of 2003.

"Now we have a good, healthy squad, which is reasonably big but still needs a few players in to compete at the highest level.

"No disresepct to the players involved but compared to the squad under Stan Ternent and definitely the first year with Steve Cotterill, there's been a massive improvement.

"We've got to keep the nucleus of that squad together.

"In my first couple of seasons, what we had to build on wasn't as big or as good as it is now.

"There's a big opportunity for us to push on now and build on what we've got."