West Brom must still have Spurs, Newcastle United & Crystal Palace transfer regret | OneFootball

The Baggies will regret the way they handled Saido Berahino’s transfer saga back in 2015.

West Brom possessed a top talent during their long stint in the Premier League, as Saido Berahino emerged through Albion’s academy.

The West Midlands outfit spent an impressive eight years in the top flight between 2010 and 2018, with a lot of faces donning the famous blue and white stripes.

Berahino was a player who featured heavily during that time, bursting onto the scene at The Hawthorns back in 2013, and didn’t make his exit until 2017.

Despite his goalscoring talents, Albion will be disappointed looking back on how they handled the Burundi international’s transfer saga, and the club must avoid a repeat to help it prosper financially in the long-term.

Saido Berahino’s West Brom journey

Saido Berahino first announced himself on the Premier League stage at Old Trafford against Manchester United back in 2013, scoring the winner for Albion in a famous 2-1 victory after replacing Scott Sinclair off the bench.

Rotated in and out of the starting XI for the remainder of that season, the youngster would net five times from 32 Premier League appearances, with the Baggies seemingly having a star-studded striker on their books.

Continuing his development, Berahino would go on to play such a key role the following season, featuring in every game as well as making 32 starts.

From the 38 games, the frontman would be Albion’s top goalscorer with 14 strikes and secured the club's Player of the Year award.

Generating interest from some top Premier League sides after an impressive season, Albion rejected a reported £15 million bid from Tottenham Hotspur, valuing the forward at around £25 million. With disruptive events in that transfer window, Tony Pulis opted to replace Berahino with new signing Solomon Rondon for a starting spot.

During the summer transfer window of 2015, Albion had rejected four bids for Berahino, with the forward then venting his frustrations on X (formerly known as Twitter) , detailing that he would never play again for the club under then chairman Jeremy Peace.

The following January window would be fueled by more heavy interest from fellow top flight clubs, with Newcastle United seeing a £21 million offer turned down by Albion.

Despite just netting on four occasions during the 2015/16 campaign, the Black Country would go on to rebuff £17 million bids from both Stoke City and Crystal Palace the following term, before a French training camp in November 2016 revealed Berahino was eight pounds overweight and deemed unfit to play for the club.

Featuring for only the first four games of the season, Berahino was eventually sold to Stoke City for a reported fee of £12 million, bringing an end to a chaotic and negative final couple of years in B71.

West Brom must avoid similar mistakes under new ownership

The Baggies still possess some top talent at the club this season, with the likes of Tom Fellows and Josh Maja generating plenty of Premier League interest themselves due to their rise in the second tier.

The new hierarchy at Albion should take note of the past mistakes involving Berahino and not keep a player for too long whose heart is settled on a move to a bigger club.

Although Maja and Fellows are likely to not have a similarly poor attitude as Berahino had at the time, there is a risk that their mindset could change if a return to the Premier League isn’t imminently made.

If frustration sets in for the duo, Albion shouldn’t risk keeping them and letting their game gradually worsen, as the Baggies will miss out on big-money fees for the pair.

If this scenario does arise in the future, West Brom should take the significant amounts of money they receive in a heartbeat and use it to bolster key positions in the squad, with such an influx of depth and quality sure to make them a force in the Championship for future years.

Such a key decision like this could, in the end, result in Albion leapfrogging to the Premier League quicker than expected, with Shilen Patel then able to execute his plan of getting the club back and competing in the upwards sections of the top flight table.