Alexis Bertin has discovered a side benefit to playing for Albion.

The French midfielder no longer has to get up for training the day after a game.

Bertin is relishing his first few weeks of English football after switching from his home city club Le Havre.

And it is not just because of the more physical nature of the matches.

He enjoys being able to do more with the ball in training during the week.

And he no longer has to deal with the dreaded decrassage, the bane of French footballers' lives.

Literally meaning the cleaning out', the decrassage is the session which demands players report the day after a game for a run and a massage to get the previous night's 90 minutes out of their legs.

Former Albion striker John Byrne, who played for Le Havre from 1988 to 1990, remembers flying back from away games in the south of France and being back at the trianing ground a few hours later.

He said: "We used to play at 8.30pm on a Saturday. Often, after away games, you'd come back on a little aeroplane which was quite terrifying at times.

"You'd get back at two in the morning and back in at 9.30am so it was a culture shock at first.

"You'd have a 20-minute run and a soapy rub off the physio and that was it."

Byrne admits that approach meant you had to go easy on the beers after a game.

He said: "It's not that culture over there anyway. Me and Frank Stapleton used to go out because that was the nature of football in those days.

"But generally after games all the players used to go for a meal together with their wives. The club would hire out a restaurant and that would finish about 1am. Then you're in at 9.30am or ten the next day."

Bertin manages a laugh and an "of course" when asked if he is glad to leave the decrassage behind.

He said: "The style here suits me well, better than in France. I'm really happy with it.

"We worked a lot in terms of power and physique in France. We ran a lot.

"Every week we'd have a big fitness session. Here it's more relaxed.

"We played on Friday in France. Then on Saturday morning you'd always have the decrassage.

"For those who didn't play that's a big session to try and catch up."

Le Havre's weekly training programme often includes two days when they train twice, typically Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bertin said: "It's a big workload. At the end of that you can be a bit tired.

"In terms of preparation, I like what happens here. At Le Havre we used to complain that we didn't do enough with the ball. Here, that's all we do. It's cool. As long as you do your work on the pitch it's fine."

Despite Bertin's dislike for too many fitness sessions, they seemed to serve him well when he slotted into the Albion midfield last month.

Having not played a full league game for more than a year, he comfortably came through four lots of 90 minutes in League One in a fortnight.

Byrne might not have been surprised by that.

He said: "I've got to say when I played in France I was probably the fittest I've ever been.

"You might put that down to the fact you'd only rarely play in midweek. But all that scientific stuff we're into now here in England, they were doing it in 1988."