It's a hindsight thing. If in the scenario we had sold Saido to Newcastle and he had hit form, scoring the goals to keep them up and maybe somehow plunge us into trouble, we'd have been lambasted as idiots and rightly it would have gone down as a hideous transfer.
We weren't to know at the time of keeping him he would be essentially useless for the rest of the season. It stands to logical sense that once he knows he's here he knuckles down and tries hard, to impress people and earn his move. I know he's not too smart, but an utter idiot can figure that out. It just didn't work, in part due to Pulis' tactics.
We did the right thing turning down Spurs as they were mugging us off and no matter what happens I'll keep that opinion. In an ideal world we'd have sold him this summer, got in a replacement and everyone could move on.
I bare the lad no ill will and hope he does decently in his future. He won't do well as he's not right in the head obviously, which is a shame given his background. A strong figure who genuinely cared for him, not what they could get from him could have helped Saido out hugely over the past 2 years.
I agree with this. It wasn't a mistake telling Spurs to do one, they offered small money in segments - at the time we didn't even have Rondon and it would have been suicidal, especially after Berahino's previous season. £6 million a year or so from Spurs wouldn't have helped us one bit in replacing him.
Then with Newcastle I believe it was all up-front and would have been a genuinely good deal, but you're right - it could have really harmed us. Hindsight is fine but at the time it wasn't so clear. Even last season whilst he was bad, he still scored us quite a few points with his goals (winners against Villa, Sunderland and Palace - as well as a few equalisers I believe).
Then this season it was genuinely baffling why he wasn't sold to Stoke...it may have been less but his stock had dropped and he seems more damaged now.
Anyway on to the here and now, I've held this belief for a while but I just don't think he's good enough anymore. I don't think his attitude is bad right now and has been enthusiastic for a while now, whatever his motives. I just think mentally something has switched off his footballing skills and he's a shadow of his former self for whatever reason, and it will be incredibly hard to get back.
I hope he does come good for his own sanity, but I think sadly in football it rarely happens like this.