Hughes slams Albion as row over Berahino turns personal
The row between Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion over the hushing up of Saido Berahino’s drugs ban turned personal last night as Stoke manager Mark Hughes accused Albion’s Tony Pulis of giving him the cold shoulder before and after the home side’s 1-0 win over their Midlands rivals.
Hughes further accused Albion of failing to disclose the striker’s eightweek suspension as they negotiated the £12 million sale of Berahino to Stoke last month, contrary to Pulis’s claim that his club “has been open and honest in everything”.
The Stoke manager was also upset that news of Berahino’s suspension – imposed by the Football Association following a failed test for a Class A drug, believed to have been last September – did not emerge until Thursday of last week, on the eve of Berahino’s return to the Hawthorns in a Stoke shirt.
“We were not told [about the ban] by West Brom,” he said. “There was some talk that they made us fully aware of the situation but they did not.
“It was disappointing that it came out the way it did, although probably for them too because clearly they had been able to keep it under wraps for six or seven weeks, and lo and behold, two days before our game against his former club it comes out.
“It is a shame because people would suggest West Brom had something to do with that, which would be unfair wouldn’t it?” Asked if he believed that Albion had deliberately leaked the story in an attempt to unsettle Berahino after his troubled last 18 months at the Hawthorns, Hughes said: “I’m not saying that. You can interpret it that way but I’m not saying that.”
The managers did not shake hands at the end of the match, nor before it according to Hughes. “I don’t know why that was. He did not shake my hand before the game either. I would have thought being the guest of the club he might have come over and welcomed me to the ground but for some reason he didn’t want to. With most managers you have disagreements during a game but usually you have a beer afterwards. But I’m not too worried.”
Pulis did not attend the press conferences after the match and Albion have made no comment on the row.
The only goal yesterday came in the sixth minute when Darren Fletcher fed Nacer Chadli on a breakaway attack, the former Tottenham man setting up James Morrison with a perfectly timed pass to enable the Scotland international midfielder to fire an angled shot past Stoke goalkeeper Lee Grant.
Albion had several chances to stretch their lead before half-time and, though Stoke improved in the second half, Hughes admitted that the home side were in control for much of the game.