Stoke City fell flat with £12 million West Brom deal - it was a disaster | OneFootball

Saido Berahino joined Stoke City in January 2017 from West Brom for £12 million after a lengthy transfer saga - it didn't prove to be worth the wait

Saido Berahino joined Stoke City in January 2017 in a £12 million deal from West Brom, with the Potters in a desperate search for more goals whilst still in the top flight of English football.

Stoke were on the hunt for more goals in the Premier League as Mark Hughes' side began to slump down the table following three consecutive ninth-placed finishes in the top flight.

Wilfried Bony was brought in over the summer on loan from Man City, and the hope was that the Ivorian would be the main man up front for the Potters, but after just two goals in ten appearances - both against former club Swansea - Bony found himself out of Hughes' plans.

In came Berahino that January for £12 million on a five-and-a-half-year deal from West Brom, but his performances left a lot to be desired, failing to score in 13 Premier League appearances, and, in comparison, made the deal to bring Bony to the bet365 Stadium look like a stroke of genius.

Saido Berahino's West Brom tantrum was a red flag - Stoke City ignored it

Berahino - now 32 years of age - hit 14 goals and one assist at The Hawthorns in the 2014/15 season, playing every single match and earning himself an England call-up under Roy Hogdson, whilst also drawing transfer interest from Tottenham.

The following summer, Spurs' bids were blocked by the Baggies, leading Berahino to go on strike and stating he would never play under the then-West Brom hierarchy again.

Speaking to the BBC World Service in 2020, Berahino said: "[That is] one moment in my life I can say I couldn't get over it.

"I didn't know what to do, I got caught up in the hype. I didn't handle the situation properly, I let it get hold of me. The people around me at the time didn't know what to do either. Bad news travels fast.

"The media is there to do their job, they build you up and when you are ready to come back down, you will come back down like a roller coaster. I wasn't focusing on the media, I was more concerned on my career and what I was going through emotionally."

Berahino became a shadow of his former self, scoring just four times in the 2015/16 season and then appearing just four times the following campaign, before West Brom sold him to Stoke in January 2017 - ending a nightmare year-and-a-half in the Black Country to give him potentially a new lease of life.

With the Potters in somewhat of a downward spiral of their own, Berahino didn't help his or the club's case.

The Burundi international scored just five times in 56 games for Stoke across all competitions in two-and-a-half years with the club as they was relegated from the Premier League in 2018, failing to score a single goal in the top flight for the Potters, and he then flopped in the Championship too.

Amidst his calamitous time on the pitch, Berahino was never far from controversy off of it.

In May 2019, Berahino was found guilty of drinking and driving, being fined £75,000 and banned from driving for 30 months, just to add to his woes on the pitch.

Former Stoke team-mate Glen Johnson revealed on talkSPORT in 2019 that he believed Berahino had a vendetta against Stoke from the start, saying: “If you were on the bench or not in the matchday squad, you'd have to run after the game. Of course, no players liked doing it because they're angry at not playing in the first place and you may be running at 10.30pm, but they were the rules and everyone did it, but Saido would jog.

"Say we had a day off the following Sunday [after a match], because Saido didn't run, everybody had to come in on that day - even those who played.

"So what happens on Sunday is we turn up for training, Saido phones in sick and there was uproar. Where do you go from that?

"There was total disrespect and that's what he was like on a daily basis and the fact they paid [up his contract] with three years left to go says it all.”

Berahino walked away from his Stoke contract in the summer of 2019 with three years still left on it, without receiving any major pay-off from the Potters.

The Burundi captain has since gone on to play in Belgium, Cyprus, India and Slovenia, as well as Sheffield Wednesday under Darren Moore, but he has never been able to get his career back on track since his failed Stoke stint.

In hindsight, Tottenham will probably be relieved that they never signed Berahino, whilst West Brom will have been glad to see the back of him to Stoke - it was a move that could've rejuvinated the forward, only for it to go in the complete opposite direction.