If I have to quit Baggies to win it all then I will
ROY’S NEW BOY SAIDO THINKS BIG...
SAIDO BERAHINO sat next to club manager Alan Irvine yesterday and produced a performance as assured as any he has delivered on the pitch this season.
Mother Liliane featured heavily, and there were surely a few winces coming from West Brom officials when Berahino suggested he might have to leave the Midlands club in search of Champions League football.
The player was quick to put what could have been an incendiary revelation into context.
‘It doesn’t mean I am going to leave this year or next year, it’s just an ambition I have,’ declared a confident Berahino.
‘I shall take each game but my ambition is to play Champions League, to play senior football for England, to play in big tournaments, World Cups and Euros. I have a big vision and hope to reach my goals. Leaving West Brom? If that’s what it comes to, it will have to be that.’
Berahino realises he is the hottest property in the Premier League at the moment but a contract through to 2017 suggests he is not going anywhere just yet.
Manager Irvine chipped in, saying: ‘I hope he is not going anywhere because we want to take the club forward. If there is an opportunity to go then it must be the right time.
‘ Who knows what the future brings. Right now he is in a good place, being given a chance to play week in and week out with a club who play to his strengths. It is important that young players don’t go to the wrong place.’
Berahino was fast asleep when the England squad was announced at midday on Thursday. His mother saw the news on TV and called her son from his slumbers.
The striker, who has eight goals this season, fled war-torn Burundi as a kid and admits he still thinks he is in dreamland.
Last season Berahino, 21, was involved in several high-profile incidents, including taking hippy crack, and while he has turned over a new leaf, he has no intention of changing his personality.
He added: ‘People who know me know what type of person I am. I work hard on my game. I like to have a laugh like any other youngster.
‘People might look at me that way because of my loudness but I don’t mean any harm, I just want to have fun. I don’t have to change.
‘There will be more eyes on me but I know I can handle the pressure and I let the football do the talking. There is a lot of pressure. Some of us thrive, some of us fade away. Mentally I couldn’t be any more prepared. What I have been through has made me a stronger person and stronger character.
‘I was in the newspapers for a lot of things but always thought I would come through. I was learning about life and I was new in the Premier League. I have realised I can’t live in a certain way as a footballer. I didn’t want my mum seeing me in the paper for the wrong things. She didn’t stop talking to me, gave me a headache sometimes and she has always been there. Mum said “don’t waste God’s time”, she always mentions that.’
If Berahino does win his first cap, the shirt will go straight to his mother. First he has to play for West Brom against Newcastle tomorrow.
He is no longer the cocky upstart who clashed with senior players last season and revealed every West Brom player shook his hand when he reported for training yesterday morning. The forward credits Irvine for his change of attitude and the manager is obviously fond of him.
Irvine added: ‘It is important he remains focused, important he doesn’t forget. It is very easy to be distracted by what happens outside a training ground or football pitch.
‘My feeling is that this is a great opportunity for Saido to go and learn. That’s what top players do to reach this level.
‘I will ask him: “what have you learnt?” This is the best learning experience he can have.
‘I have said here on a number of occasions, as long as he keeps doing what he’s been doing, living his life, keeps applying himself, then good things will happen.’