Saido Berahino has admitted he was very cautious about joining Sheffield Wednesday.
Despite being linked with Tottenham Hotspur early on in his career, Berahino’s time in English football didn’t go quite as expected.
After bagging 26 goal contributions in 45 games in his first campaign for West Brom, things quickly took a turn for the striker.
He went onto join Stoke City in a deal worth £15 million and netted only five goals in 56 games before moving to Belgium with Zulte Waragem.
After a loan spell to Charleroi, Berahino was then contacted by Darren Moore at Sheffield Wednesday, who had worked with him at The Hawthorns.
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Berahino had ‘washed his hands’ of English football
The Burundi international went onto move to Hillsborough, but has now admitted that he really ‘wasn’t keen’ to return to England before speaking to Moore.
Speaking on the Rising Ballers YouTube channel, Berahino said: “Yeah I came to Sheffield Wednesday because I’d obviously worked with Darren Moore before at West Brom and we always kept in touch.
“I wasn’t keen to come back by the way, but because I had a phone call with him… I had already washed my hands of England, I didn’t want to be involved or play in England. So when he called I was like, come on… you know… we’re gonna push for the Championship.
“We gave it a good run and then yeah, when my contract ended there I left again.”
Sheffield Wednesday did upgrade with Michael Smith
Berahino’s time in Yorkshire was much more successful than his time with Stoke, netting eight goals and providing four assists in 31 games as Wednesday were beaten in the League One play-offs.
The forward since went back abroad and has four goals in 44 games for Cypriot outfit AEL Limassol.
Berahino was a very handy player to have in the third tier and made a significant contribution to them reaching the play-offs, but his exit wasn’t too disappointing when the Owls went onto replace him with Michael Smith.
The 32-year-old went onto claim 28 goal contributions in all competitions and made that extra stride to actually take Wednesday up to the Championship – something Berahino failed to do.
The forward clearly enjoyed playing under Moore but it really seemed like he struggled in English football otherwise, though the former manager certainly didn’t miss him once he was gone.