Berahino – Why we should trust Pochettino’s judgement

The views on who we should sign as a striker in the window are vastly different, and as always with Spurs, there are so many names linked.

Follow e-Spurs!

e-Spurs on FB - Click Here

e-Spurs on Twitter - Click Here

e-Spurs on G+ - Click Here

e-Spurs on Instagram - Click Here

e-Spurs on YouTube - Click Here

*e-Spurs are looking for THFC fans as writers of match previews/reports, opinion based articles and nostalgia pieces. Interested in this amazing opportunity? e-mail e-football@live.co.uk

Article by Jason @e_spursthailand

The most common links were Batshauyi, always in my mind highly unlikely, and now signed up to Marseille until 2020. Even if we had been interested, I am convinced there was no chance of this happening in the January window. Far too much of a risk for the player to change teams and leagues with the European Championships coming up this summer.

Then there is the link with Barcelona’s Sandro Ramirez. This is a player with just 2 senior goals to his name. He may well have the talent we require, and in fairness, is unlikely to get a chance to really blossom in the company of Suarez, Neymar & Messi, and this should not be held against him as a mark of his ability. I will not argue against the merits of signing him, but I would say that in the January window, I think you need to know exactly what you’re getting and that player must have an instant impact, not just the potential.

That leaves Berahino, a potential signing that has already polarized opinions, the majority it seems against, from reasons of being over priced, just not highly rated enough, and to a poor attitude.

Regular listeners of the e-spurs podcast will have heard me pushing for the signing of Berahino regularly since the last window. This reason is not made through my personal belief, Charlie Austin for me would have been mine, and would have represented far more value. My pushing for Berahino is made on the understanding that he is the player that Poch actually seems to want, actually seems to be happy to wait for during August, and Poch has totally earned the right and our respect to make a signing that he actually WANTS rather than the cheaper alternative.

Poch has shown he doesn’t want the club to waste money as we did on Stambouli etc., and having cleared out so much of the deadwood, and having developed so much of the youth, he thoroughly deserves to be backed and his judgment fully supported.

In respect of his value, we all know English players are over valued. Even our own Harry Kane is now apparently valued higher than Bale and Suarez. Those 2 have that fantastic ability to use extreme skills to win a game from nowhere. Harry has been great for us, but has he really been that great? And I mean that with no negativity to Harry who I love to bits and hope we keep at WHL for many years.

Ability wise, this is a player who won the England U-21 player of the year in 2014, has shown great link-up play with Kane for the U21s. Berahino scored a hat-trick on his senior WBA debut, ok v Newport, but we reveled in Harry’s hat-trick v Asteros.

He subsequently became an integral part of Albion’s first-team squad – scoring nine goals in 35 outings to finish as leading scorer and also collecting the club’s Young Player of the Season award.

Berahino was named Albion's 2014/15 Players' Player of the Season by his team-mates after scoring 20 times in all competitions - becoming the first Baggies player to do so since 2007/08.

Berahino, by the end of the 2014/15 season, had made 43 Premier League starts for Albion and a further 27 off the bench. He had 19 top flight goals to his name. By the same period he had scored 41 goals in 81 senior appearances for Albion.

The critics will say he has only 3 goals for WBA this season, but by contrast Rickie Lambert has just 1, club record signing Salomon Rondon has just 3, and James Morrison has 3. Therefore, Berahino despite being on the fringes is actually still joint top-scorer!!

The stats are of course factual, not opinions.

So the last case against is the ‘attitude’ case. We all know there was the famous tweet about not playing again. There is no excuse for this, and it’s hard to make any case  supporting that tweet. The only half excuse it may have been prompted by his then agent (since been sacked), Aidy Ward (who of course was the infamous Raheem Sterling transfer agent). But of course, it may just have been Berahino himself.

However, as with all transfers, we do not know what goes on behind the scenes. We do not know for sure that THFC have encouraged him to push for the move, and therefore, he has shown exactly that attitude THFC have wanted him to show!! That’s pure speculation, but we do know potential buying clubs do encourage such moves behind the scenes.

It’s also worth noting that since his initial club fine for the comments made, nothing about his attitude has since apparently brought about any subsequent club fine despite Pulis being known for his tough discipline. Contrast that to Saido Mane’s fine by Ronald Koeman just last week for being late for a team meeting.

You can also take the view that he shows he is desperate for the move to take place, and take encouragement from somebody who really wants to be at THFC, and am sure will if he signs be desperate to show his true abilities and be hungry to make up for lost time.

Some will say if he can show that attitude at WBA, then what if another club come in for him in 2 years time and he does it to us. Well, if they do come in, it will be because he’s scored plenty of goals for THFC so will have justified his signing, and the club will therefore have benefitted.

It’s worth also saying that Luka & Berba showed similar traits to that of Berahino, but it would be worth asking our fans that in view of the way those players ended their THFC careers, would we therefore have preferred that we’d never signed them in the first place. And how many would take Luka back now, even allowing for how he left and of course also missed games because ‘his head wasn’t in the right place’.

Pochettino has specific requirements for the striker he wants. He must be an excellent athlete, capable of working in the team’s pressing style and, obviously, bring a goal threat and a good attitude. Pochettino himself felt that it was Berahino that fitted the bill.

In amongst the Pulis comments about Berahino’s attitude, Pochettino himself has said, “What is most important is that we do not rock the balance of the team. It is important we find someone who is very specific. For me, always, you want to find a striker that scores a lot of goals and who has good physical condition, good characteristics, who can press, work hard and is a nice guy, too.”

If Poch still wants Berahino, it’s because he himself is confident about his attitude, confident it won’t be a problem, and of course Poch will have knowledge of subsequent discussions since August between Berahino’s representatives and THFC.

None of us know the full facts and the reasons behind his subsequent problems at West Brom, but for me, if Saido Berahino is the man that Pochettino still wants, and then it is up to Daniel Levy to fully support his manager and go and get the deal done.

And we’ll then see the work rate, effort, and abilities of Berahino in front of our own eyes, and then we can make our own judgment on whether he is indeed the right signing.

After all, most of us though playing Eric Dier in midfield was absolute madness!!!

© e-Media Group 2015 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of @e_media_group

Share on Google Plus