At Stoke, however, new team-mates got a brief sighting of the charming side of Berahino that had engendered ongoing loyalty at Albion. He was polite, charming and hard-working. Once again, though, the other side of Saido did not take long to make an appearance.
As Stoke hurtled towards relegation under Mark Hughes, Berahino was among a group of training-ground mavericks who angered team-mates with their antics.
In the aftermath, former England defender Glen Johnson used an appearance on Talksport to let rip.
“He had the wrong mentality and attitude from day one and for whatever reason, when he was at Stoke, he was going against the grain,†Johnson told the station.
“If we were told to be somewhere at 10, he would turn up at ten-past — it was like he had a vendetta from the start. It was strange to watch because every now and then, you’d see glimpses of his talent in training and think, ‘Yeah, you can play’ but he didn’t ever seem to want to push himself.
“If you were on the bench or not in the match-day squad, you’d have to run after the game. Of course, no players liked doing it because they’re angry at not playing in the first place and you may be running at 10.30pm but they were the rules and everyone did it. But Saido would jog.
“Say we had a day off the following Sunday. Because Saido didn’t run, everybody had to come in on that day — even those who played.
“So what happens on Sunday is we turn up for training, Saido phones in sick and there was uproar. Where do you go from that? There was total disrespect and that’s what he was like on a daily basis.â€
Berahino responded to Johnson’s comments in an interview with The Times.
He said: “I respect Glen Johnson’s career that he’s already produced. That’s his opinion. If that’s how he felt, it’s funny that he’s coming out now on radio when the disappointing thing for me is I had so much respect for him.
“I sat next to him in the changing room. There was never one time he called me aside and said about my behaviour or anything.
“He’s a well-respected player, he’s a senior player. He’s got so many accolades, so I was a bit disappointed that he had to go to the radio to say that.
“He could have said something when I was going through a tough period at Stoke but if that’s how he feels, then I can only respect his opinion and I wish him all the best for what he is doing in his career now.â€
When Hughes was sacked and replaced by Paul Lambert, Berahino found himself frozen out of the first-team picture as the Scot attempted a crackdown on discipline.
In the wake of relegation, sources report he responded well to a fresh chance afforded to him by new manager Gary Rowett.
Rowett adopted a fatherly managerial approach which coaxed ‘good Saido’ back from the sidelines and, briefly, raised hopes that his Potteries career could be revived.
But top form never returned and last August Stoke reached a settlement with Berahino to cancel the final three years of his contract. He left having scored just three league goals in 51 appearances.
Perhaps only those who saw a young Berahino making his way through the ranks at Albion and with England can appreciate the scale of the talent that went unfulfilled.
England manager Southgate recognised it. He often asked Kane, the current England captain, to complete an unfashionable shift out wide so Berahino could take the centre-forward’s role for the under-21s.
Manchester United recognised it. Even after the risks became clear, the Old Trafford club still checked in with Fletcher about the merits of a possible bid.
And team-mates recognised it more than anyone. One experienced international confided to colleagues that he expected one day to be boasting to his children, “I played with him†while watching Berahino get the better of the world’s best defenders in the Champions League.
Now, as Berahino attempts to resurrect his career in Belgium with Zulte Waregem, there is scepticism about whether he can ever again scale the heights he reached briefly under Clarke and Irvine. He has five goals in 13 league appearances for his Belgian club at a rate of one every 212 minutes but, at the age of 26, time is no longer on his side and many former colleagues fear that not only is he seen as damaged goods by English clubs but that years of fluctuating weight must have taken its toll.
His best friend, though, is keeping faith. Berahino met Romaine Sawyers at the age of 12 and the midfielder, who returned to Albion as a first-team player this season after six years away, has a unique insight on his pal.
After so many false dawns and let-downs, Sawyers believes the charming Berahino is finally ready to own the mistakes of his trouble alter ego.
“Growing up in the academy together, we became best friends and we always have been,†says Sawyers. “He’s like a little brother to me although we’re a similar age.
“He’s scoring goals now and if you know Saido, you’ll know that’s his forte and that’s what makes him happy. As long as he’s scoring, he’ll always be happy.
“He’s a Premier League player in my opinion — I have never seen a natural finisher like him.
“If you go and speak to him and ask him who his hero is, he would say Jermain Defoe. The way that he finishes is Jermaine Defoe. His movement is Jermain Defoe. He’s just a lover of football. Whenever there is a football around, Saido will be close to it or he will be at home watching videos of Defoe, Karim Benzema, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry… but for whatever reason, there was a mental blockage when things went left with the whole Tottenham thing.â€
Sawyers felt the pain of his friend’s self-inflicted wounds and shed collective tears but, like so many who have witnessed the demon on Berahino’s shoulder winning too many battles with the angel on the other, Sawyers has never given up on the smiling young boy he first met on a training field a decade and a half ago.
“It was hard,†he says. “It hurts to see somebody you care about going through stuff like that. A lot of it was internal. He’s such an introverted character.
“Anybody that truly knows him knows he’s not a bad person. Because he’s such an introverted person, it’s hard to get into him. We’ve had heart-to-hearts and we’ve had them in groups where there have been tears because the people around him care so much. But you can’t always understand what somebody is going through and people can’t always explain what they’re going through.
“It’s quite hard for him. He’s a young boy who came from Burundi early and everything is a bonus to him, almost. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a normal human being with real emotions.
“He’s not the first case of somebody who has spiralled and had bad times in their career and he won’t be the last.
“He’s definitely got remorse in his heart. He’s not a stupid kid. He makes silly mistakes but he’s not stupid.
“He’s had a lot of time now to self-evaluate and he must mentally be in a great place because some of the goals he’s scoring out there are great.
“Some of the mistakes he makes are stupid — he knows that within himself, I know that and everybody around him knows that.
“But the core of him is good.â€