Stoke City face an uncertain January regarding Tom Cannon’s future, but if he is recalled by Leicester City, leaving them short up front, they cannot afford to repeat a particularly bad forward flop signing from January 2017.
The Potters are failing to hit the heights in front of goal this season as a team, yet Cannon has been scoring relatively consistently, which should come as no surprise given the almighty battle that ensued for his signature in the summer window.
His exploits have prompted rumours of the Foxes being ready to recall him in the new year, to either sell him on or keep him in their Premier League squad, and so Stoke will be on red alert for solutions to the real issue that would arise if he is not plying his trade in ST4 come February.
Narcis Pelach could delve into the loan market once more, or look to bring in a permanent signing as he finds his feet as Stoke head coach, but one thing he will not want to do is bring in a player that goes on to replicate Saido Berahino's Potters exploits.
Berahino had been chased by Stoke for numerous transfer windows by the time he joined from West Brom back in January 2017, but his lack of impact at the club was stark, and he had multiple issues both on and off the pitch before his eventual exit just over two years later.
Stoke City will not want to repeat Saido Berahino signing if Tom Cannon leaves
saido berahino stoke
The Potters finally landed long-term target Berahino in January 2017 on a five-and-a-half-year contract from midlands rivals West Brom for an initial fee of £12m, but his time that followed at the club can only be described as a nightmare, and it almost seemed doomed from the very start.
Still only 23-years-old, the England youth international had initially burst onto the Premier League scene with the Baggies in the 2014/15 season, but the 18 months prior to his Potters move had seen him bag just four league goals in 35 appearances, which did not match the pretty hefty fee that Mark Hughes had brought him to the club for.
Berahino was supposed to be the Welshman's go-to striker, but he failed to score in his first half-season at the club, and his form only got worse from then on.
Missed chance after missed chance followed in the 2017/18 campaign, and he spurned a golden opportunity to score his first Potters goal with a saved penalty against Southampton in September 2017, while eventually reaching the landmark of two years without scoring a goal in February 2018.
Stoke were in deep relegation trouble by that point, and with Hughes sacked and replaced by hard-line boss Paul Lambert, Berahino was banished to the youth team by the Scot due to poor discipline, including arriving late for training and on match-days.
The club were soon relegated to the Championship, but with Berahino back in the second-tier squad under Gary Rowett, he finally netted for the first time for Stoke in August 2018 against Huddersfield Town, as he ended a drought of 913 days without a goal.
That could, and should have been the start of a new beginning for the former England youth striker, but he bagged just four more times in 24 appearances before more off-pitch trouble in February 2019 saw him not selected by new boss Nathan Jones again for the rest of the season.
Saido Berahino's Stoke statistics (transfermarkt)
Appearances
Goals
Assists
Berahino was suspended without pay during his legal proceedings, and then eventually had his Stoke contract mutually terminated in August 2019. His stint at the club has since been slammed by former teammate Glen Johnson, who claimed that he "had the wrong mentality (and) the wrong attitude from day one."
Stoke could suffer a huge Tom Cannon blow next month
Tom Cannon in text new-1
The Potters beat off some strong competition to sign Cannon in the last week of the summer window in August, and despite a slow start in ST4, he has come into his own in recent months under current boss Pelach's guidance, and currently sits joint-third in the Championship scoring charts with eight league goals.
With that sort of form comes more interest in his services, however, and crucial recent developments revealed that the 21-year-old has a recall clause in his loan deal that the Foxes could potentially trigger in January to either keep him in their own top-flight squad, or sell him on for a sizeable fee and leave the Potters short-changed.
Stoke cannot afford to lose him in the January window if they wish to continue their challenge for a top-half finish, but the club will be aware of the possibility of him being called back, and must act to bring in another clinical frontman in his place if disaster strikes.
One thing is for sure, they cannot afford to bring in a player that has as little impact as Berahino did in his time at the club, as well as the myriad of off-field issues and negative press that he experienced while being a Potters player.
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