Once seen as one of the brighter talents in English football, Saido Berahino’s career hasn’t exactly gone to plan.
Still technically contracted to Stoke City for the next three years, the now Burundi international has trained with both Zulte Waregem in Belgium and Nimes Olympique in France as he tries to find himself a new club.
The player is working on terminating his contract with the Championship side, and recently expressed his desire to move away from England to start afresh.
However, despite training with the Ligue 1 side and an apparent desire from the board to sign him permanently, Berahino is seeing his transfer blocked by Bernard Blaquart, the manager.
Le10 Sport explain Blaquart is ‘refusing’ to have the Stoke player in his squad, which has apparently surprised the forward.
A source close to Berahino told the website: “From the off, [Berahino] was able to see the glaring lack of organisation at staff level and clear lack of professionalism. He was shown the club’s infrastructures as if everything was done, that it would be his dressing room, his training grounds, at a time when he hadn’t even received a clear offer from the club.
“When he met the manager, he saw him lacking motivation, very cold. Despite his status, Berahino accepted a trial because he was really motivated to play for this club, but not in these conditions. That’s why he’s leaving and doesn’t want to continue talks. He’s not talking because he wants to respect the club, but he’s extremely surprised at how he was treated and what the manager said about him.”
The source goes on to say that all Berahino could do was ‘laugh it off’, questioning how Nimes made it to the top level with the structure they have in place.
Not an ideal situation, and it seems the Stoke player will have to continue looking for his next club over the next few weeks.
