Pulis delighted that Saido sideshow is over

Matthew Stead
Saido Berahino: Future remains under the spotlight

Saido Berahino: Future remains under the spotlight

Tony Pulis is happy to bring to an end the saga over Saido Berahino’s future after the West Brom striker scored the winner against Aston Villa.

The Burundi-born front man made his first start for the club since threatening to go on strike after his deadline day move to Tottenham broke down, and scored the only goal of the game at Villa Park.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Pulis spoke of his relief that the transfer saga was now over, and has called on the England international to now concentrate on his football with the Baggies.

“He has not played a lot of football and he looked tired in the second half as the game went on, but I thought he did some very good things today.

“Everyone has made mistakes. Looking back, you think you would do something different and I am sure Saido will, in a few years’ time, look back and say ‘I should have looked after that situation better’.

“He got crucified for it and in some respects he deserves it, but he is a young lad and he deserves help and for people to back him and work with him.

“The players have been wonderful with him. Hopefully he gets his head down and concentrates on what he is good at.

“It’s over now, it’s forgotten. He has to move on and, as a club, we have to move on. He is a very, very good player.”

After watching his side keep a third consecutive clean sheet away in the Premier League, Pulis was delighted with the efforts of his charges.

“We have had a nice week with the players and we have not had that since the [transfer] window closed,” he said.

“It is the first time we have had time to work with them and get them in to what we want them to do.

“We were more like it today, I thought we played really well. We were the better team, I don’t think Villa can have any complaints.

“The whole group work hard and I think we showed today that, if you have got a team playing like a team, it is very difficult to create chances against us. I don’t think they opened us up once.

“It was our best team performance by a mile. I said on Thursday that, if we can take the way we’ve trained into what we need on Saturday, we will give Villa a good game.

“We deserved, without a question of a doubt, to win this game today.”