Will Saido Berahino Come Back To His Best?
“I still believe in myself,” said Saido Berahino after missing the penalty against Southampton. Luckily for him, Peter Crouch bailed Stoke with a late winner at Bet 365 stadium. But that doesn’t end Berahino’s acute problems at Stoke and he has to prove his character to end his wait for a goal — which is now at 32 games, 583 days and counting.
Berahino, 24, is yet to score since signing for Stoke in January and his last goal for previous club West Bromwich Albion came in February 2016. In the Premier League, in its most austere terms, he has subsequently played 1,908 minutes, had 38 shots and has failed to score.
The mini-stats show Berahino is really struggling with form and confidence and the best thing is that he gets his act together and starts scoring goals.
There are very few English talents like Berahino in the Premier League these days – strong, agile, quick, and composed in front of goal. One could say with certainty that there is no doubt over Berahino’s potential and in the next few years, he should play for bigger clubs, in England or abroad, but the truth is that not all of them are watching him now.
Looking back at how everything started for the Burundi-born striker, Berahino entered West Brom’s centre of excellence in 2004. In 2010, he played for England Under-17s at the European Championship and subsequently a year later, signed a professional contract at the Hawthorns. Following a couple of loan spells with Northampton and Peterborough, he returned as a player ready to make his mark with the Baggies.
Soon, his dream was fulfilled and he made his first West Brom start in 2013-14 season. The season went quite well for Berahino as he scored 9 goals in 35 appearances. What followed was a spectacular season for Berahino in 2014-15, as he bagged 20 goals in 45 appearances which saw him rightly win West Brom’s Player of the Year award.
Then, there was an ugly face to Berahino’s chapter at West Brom, which ended on a gloomy note in January. In 2014, Berahino was pictured inhaling nitrous oxide (laughing gas), and admitted drink-driving in January 2015. If that was not the end, Berahino was subject to a big-money move to Tottenham which West Brom abruptly rejected in late August 2015.
This sent the Englishman into meltdown and Berahino grumpily tweeted he would never play for then chairman Jeremy Peace again. The fiery tweet saw Berahino attract a lot of criticism from West Brom faithful and followers across the globe, yet manager Tony Pulis didn’t give up. Last October, deemed to be overweight, Berahino was sent on special fitness programme in France.
The whole escapade was annoying for everyone, who had seen Berahino grow from a 12-year-old academy kid into a promising Premier League striker. However, since moving to Stoke, Berahino has never really looked like the player that he was.
Berahino once looked like England’s big hope – but he is now a long way from the World Cup. He has encountered various problems at West Brom and currently with Stoke; he is now in the mother of goal-scoring slumps.
“I still believe in myself. I proved it before at West Brom. I had my problems there, so my football development has slowed a bit. The most important thing is the manager has still got belief in me,’’ Berahino said after the Southampton game.
The striker huffed and puffed in the final stages of his career at West Brom and joined Stoke. Now that he has ‘moved on to bigger things’, it is high-time Berahino starts scoring and repays manager Mark Hughes’ faith in him.
The onus is on Saido!