West Brom remain the winners from £12m Stoke City agreement | OneFootball

Stoke City paid £12m to sign Saido Berahino from West Brom, but he failed to meet expectations

West Bromwich Albion are currently enduring their fourth consecutive season as a Championship club, but the Baggies have spent the majority of the last decade competing in either the Premier League or the upper echelons on the second tier.

Relegation from the top-flight in 2018 came as a particular disappointment for Albion, who had finished 10th in the Premier League during the previous 2016/17 campaign.

Although the Baggies earned automatic promotion back to the top tier in 2020, they were relegated back to the Championship just a year later, where they have subsequently remained.

One name which is synonymous with Albion's time in the Premier League is that of forward Saido Berahino, who made his debut for the club during the 2012/13 season, and would remain at the Hawthorns until making his move to Stoke City in January 2017.

West Brom were the clear winners when it came to Berahino's Stoke transfer

After earning his Baggies debut during an EFL Cup clash, the striker went on loan to Peterborough United in 2012, and scored two goals in 10 Championship outings for Posh.

It was the following 2013/14 season in which Berahino began to make somewhat of a name for himself in Albion colours, as he notched five goals in 32 Premier League appearances and a more remarkable return of four goals in just two EFL Cup ties.

But it was during the 2014/15 campaign in which the then youngster established his prolific tendencies, as he made a return of 20 goals and five assists in 40 appearances across all competitions, which included 14 goals in 38 top-flight outings.

Having featured in every league game for the Baggies, Berahino helped his side to a comfortable 13th place finish, and to just four points shy of a top-half spot.

But during the 2015/16 season, the striker was unable to build on the strong reputation he had built for himself, and he scored just four goals in 31 Premier League outings.

He then managed just four appearances during the first half of the 2016/17 top-flight campaign, amid his strained relationship with the Albion hierarchy, which prompted the club to move him on to Stoke City, in a deal worth £12m.

It is fair to say that the Baggies will always go down as the winners of that particular transfer, for accruing a fairly handsome fee, while Berahino's Stoke career did not go to plan.

In fact, the former England youth international failed to score a single goal for the Potters during the latter half of the 2016/17 season, as well as the entirety of the 2017/18 season.

His woes in front of goal were detrimental to the Potters, who suffered relegation from the top-flight to the Championship following a disappointing 2017/18 campaign.

The drop to the second tier did prove somewhat more fruitful for Berahino, albeit he managed just three Championship goals before joining Zulte Waregem during the summer of 2019.

Berahino made a surprise return to English football in 2021

After heading into the relative footballing wilderness of the Belgian First Division in 2019, Berahino would make his Football League return just two years later, as he joined Sheffield Wednesday, then of League One.

During the 2021/22 third tier campaign, he showed that he was still capable in front of goal with a decent return of eight goals and four assists in 31 league appearances.

However, he soon moved to Cyprus and failed to impress while plying his trade for AEL Limassol, but it is his big money move to Stoke which has defined his career, and is one which the Baggies will have much fonder memories of than the Potters.