Former West Brom striker Saido Berahino shares regret over war with Jeremy Peace

One of the most talented players to ever come through the Baggies academy, it was back in 2015 that Berahino saw a transfer to Tottenham collapse after former owner Jeremy Peace failed to agree a transfer fee with the London side.

It prompted the striker to take to social media with Berahino tweeting: “Sad how I can’t say exactly how the club has treated me but I can officially say I will never play (for) Jeremy Peace.”

From that point on the forward’s relationship with the club deteriorated rapidly before he was eventually sold to Stoke for £12million in January 2017.

Berahino now plays for Zulte Waregem in Belgium after struggling for form in his time with Potters.

The striker failed to score in 913 days and suffered with depression in his time at the bet365 Stadium.

And he thinks his tweet about Peace was the moment his career started to go in the wrong direction.

“When I tweeted that I didn’t want to play for West Brom – that was the worst thing I could have done, saying I don’t want to play for Jeremy Peace anymore,” Berahino told The Counter Attack podcast.

“I was in my room. I was on my phone to my agent back and forth – he was telling me Tottenham were going to bid but they couldn’t get Jeremy Peace on the phone. I was just sitting. I was in control of nothing and felt hopeless.

“And then I got the call from my agent to say it wasn’t going to happen and he wasn’t going to let me go.

“I started crying and I had so much anger I just tweeted it.

“The first person to message me back was somebody from Sky Sports.

“I looked at my phone and threw it away. Then my mum knocked on my door and said ‘what are you doing – you’re all over Sky Sports’.

“I can just remember I didn’t want to go into training. It was a big move for me and I felt the world was ending. That was the biggest mistake I made, it was a horrible mistake.”

Berahino’s career has been blighted in controversy.

In his time at Albion, he served an eight-week suspension from the FA for failing an out-of-competition drugs test.

And in May 2019 he was found guilty of drinking and driving, fined £75,000 and banned from getting behind the wheel for 30 months.

But while negative headlines didn’t help him, the 26-year-old now feels he only has himself to blame.

“The media did play a big part in my downfall but I put myself in situations where I can only blame myself,” he continued.

“I think people think I always try to push the blame on to somebody else, that I always look for excuses.

“But I have always sat down with my agent and he has always looked me in the eye and told me when I have messed up and that I need to stop doing this or that.

“There was a time when I was in denial. But while I was at Stoke I was stressed, I was depressed.

“Me not being able to speak to somebody and get proper help affected me massively and you can see that from what happened on the pitch.

“I didn’t score for about two years. I couldn’t get going. I suffered a little bit.”

Berahino felt he had no choice but to leave England following his ill-fated spells with Albion and Stoke.

But his move to Belgium has helped him rediscover his love for the game.

“I felt like I had to leave England because my reputation was really bad,” Berahino added.

“When I left West Brom I felt the number one thing I had to do was prove I am not the person the media is talking about. I felt I moved to Stoke with a cloud over my head.

“I wanted to move somewhere where they know about me but don’t really know about me. Moving to Belgium is the best decision I have made so far. I’m 26 and I love football again. I’m playing and scoring goals again. It’s great.”