Tony Pulis says it is time for West Brom forward Saido Berahino to concentrate on his football
Saturday 19 September 2015 21:25, UK
West Brom manager Tony Pulis says the club are "moving on" from the transfer controversy involving young forward Saido Berahino.
Berahino himself aided that process with the winner against local rivals Aston Villa on Saturday, a 1-0 victory Pulis felt was fully merited.
On transfer deadline day, Berahino apparently threatened to go on strike after Tottenham had bids for the England U21 international turned down by West Brom.
However, he did not take that option in the end and, having returned to the starting line-up for the first time since, he produced a sharp finish just before half-time at Villa Park, and celebrated victory by throwing his shirt to the away fans after the final whistle.
Pulis, who took Berahino off in the second half, said: "It was made for him. He was desperate to play and he is that quality that we want.
"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."
West Brom are yet to concede a goal in three away games in the Premier League this season and, having watched his side keep Villa very quiet, Pulis said he thought this was their best effort yet.
"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."
