I was very lost, it was hard for me
After a failed drugs test, a bitter transfer, and fat camp… Berahino is finally on the road to return
THE excitement Saido Berahino said he would feel on his return to West Brom today will turn to dread after revelations that he failed a test for recreational drug use.
As timing goes, you could argue it could not have been worse. Before yesterday’s news, he already expected to get 90 minutes of abuse following his protracted and bitter split from West Brom.
Berahino, 23, spent the best part of two years trying to leave after threatening never to play for the club again when a £20million move to Tottenham was blocked in 2015.
He returns just a fortnight after finally escaping with a £15m move to Stoke, hours after details emerged that he had served an eight-week ban from September last year, when he tested positive for using a recreational drug during a non-competitive test by the FA. “It’s actually funny,” said Berahino of returning to the Hawthorns. “I don’t know why, but I’m actually excited.
“I know what I’m going to get and that’s probably why I’m excited the most – the fact they are going to boo me and we end up winning at the end. I’m not going to celebrate and give it all that stuff if I score. I’ve got respect for them. They have done a lot for me and so I’m not going to go out there hoping I can score a goal to put two fingers up to everybody at the stadium.”
He cracks a joke at himself at the suggestion of maybe copying Emmanuel Adebayor’s infamous celebration in 2009, when he ran the length of the pitch to celebrate a goal against his old club Arsenal.
“I don’t think I’m fit enough for that,” he said. “I’m not that type of player or person. I have a dignity and I wouldn’t do it.”
That dignity, however, does not always appear to stretch to his off-field activities and it is not the first time Berahino has been caught up in scandal. He apologised to West Brom in April 2014 after being videoed inhaling nitrous oxide, the socalled ‘hippy crack’.
The abuse he expected, therefore, is likely to increase tenfold. “It’s not going to be great but I have been booed before – while I was playing for them,” he said. “So it’s not going to make a difference for me really whether I get booed or not. I’m just going to go there and try to win the game.
“It will feel a bit weird. I have been there since I was a kid, so it will be a bit strange for me. So I will say my hellos and hopefully we come away with a win.”
The problems for Berahino appear to just keep mounting. Before this recent drug story, he had found himself frozen out at West Brom and banished to a fitness camp in France to sort out his head and his fitness. then admitted he felt depressed.He
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is play football and when that is taken away from you, you are lost,” he said. “I was very lost. It was hard for me. I just thank Stoke for having so much faith in me, for coming window after window, to want to sign me and show that interest. Finally they have done it. I’m here and I’m so glad.
“They came back after being rejected so many times. It just shows the lengths they were willing to go for me and offering me a five-year deal is a bonus. I just can’t wait to repay them. Obviously it’s going to take a few games to get me back to where I was before but with the right set-up here, the great players I’ll have around me, I can’t see myself struggling.”
He will get an early chance too, with Stoke manager Mark Hughes set to play him today. “He is in line to be involved,” said Hughes. “He is itching to play a
I’m not going to celebrate if I score
part, although the way the game is going will determine whether he comes on. Most opposition players get some stick, and he will get some I am sure, but he is of the view that he is probably used to having some stick from West Brom supporters.
“We have brought in a player with great ability, of a good age, who hasn’t reached his peak yet. He still has a lot of development to come and we feel that what we can offer him here, it will benefit him.
“He will prosper here, I am sure of that and that is why we chased him for so long. The next three or four years are going to be really important for him, and for us. He wants to improve.” Asked what Stoke fans should expect of him, Berahino said: “They can expect an honest lad. I love the game so much. I still believe I’ve got unfinished business.
“Even at my lowest point, I never thought of walking away from the game. There’s always an end to everything. I’m a great believer in things happening for a reason. So everything happened for a reason. I got taught a great lesson and it has made me a better person.”
His latest drug use came after those comments about being taught a great lesson. His new club will hope he is serious about taking his fresh start with both hands.