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Saints Likely To Lose Out To Crystal Palace For Berahino

The local media to Crystal Palace are reporting that Selhurst park looks to be the destination for West Bromwich Albion striker Sadio Berahino.

A year ago Sadio Berahino was unsettled by Spurs according to his club, his relationship with the Baggies and their Chairman never recovered and he has rejected overtures to sign a new deal, with a year left on his contract West Brom now have no choice but to try and cash in for the biggest fee rather than see him walk away next summer, although they would be entitled to a development fee for him unlike Saints with Wanyama.

That is why West Brom can hold firm, with more cards to play than Saints had with Wanyama they can hold out for top dollar as Berahino will not walk for free next summer.

Ironically this could mean that his destination will be Crystal Palace rather than St Mary's, Saints already have a lot of attacking options and can wait for the right striker at the right price rather than buy the first one that comes along.

Berahino is an undoubted talent, but there are question marks about his attitude that will worry Saints and they may feel that the £20 million that the Croydon Advertiser is claiming that Palace are willing to pay to take him to the club will be seen as too much money for a player with his track record both on and off the pitch in terms of attitude and actual performance stats.

But West Brom are in no hurry to sell till they get the right price, they would probably achieve a development fee similar to the one Burnley received for Danny Ings last summer, back then Liverpool had to stump up £6.5 million plus £1.5 million in add ons.

That being the case then West Brom would rather keep Berahino another season than accept a bid of £12 million as Saints had to do so with Wanyama.

The other issue is that several clubs are after Berahino so a bidding war is likely, with Wanyama there was only one offer on the table and that was Spurs, Saints had already made the plans for replacing the Kenyan so they knew it would be counter productive to try and hang on for an extra million or two.

So it looks like Berahino will not be heading to St Mary's at east not for the money that West Brom want, he will perhaps become an Eagle, the only way he might end up at St Mary's is if a deal is not done by early August, then if the price has dropped Saints might consider doing business if they still have not got in who they want.

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