Report: Spurs to bid again for Saido Berahino in January

Did you think the Saido Berahino to Tottenham story was over? Nope! The Telegraph is reporting that Spurs are considering going in again for the young West Brom attacker... but for a lot less money this time around.

Saido's prolonged, and ultimately futile, summer transfer to Tottenham was one of the big stories at the end of the window. Spurs made multiple bids for the young England forward including a final bid of £23m, but the deal was ultimately rejected by West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace despite both the player and manager Tony Pulis advocating for the move. After the window, Berahino tweeted "Sad how i cant say exactly how the club has treated me but i can officially say i will never play [for] Jeremy Peace."

Since then, Berahino has been in a barely civil relationship with his current club. Berahino has gained weight since the summer, and Tony Pulis as apparently pretty much frozen him out of the club, as he's been benched the past six games and been playing more frequently with West Brom's U21 squad.

That said, Spurs are reportedly still very high on Berahino as a potential backup-slash-rotation-option for Harry Kane, but no longer believe that he's worth the £23m they bid for him in the summer. The Telegraph believes that Spurs will make an offer of £15m when the window opens next week.

A £15m bid may feel like a slap in the face to West Brom after this summer, but a lot has changed since then. Berahino's contract expires at the end of 2017, and West Brom may decide to take what they can get for him now rather than risk him signing a pre-contract with another club and losing him for nothing. Also, the Telegraph reports that apparently Daniel Levy and Peace have patched things up and relations at the club are slowly returning to normal.

The reports of Berahino's poor attitude and motivation are troubling, but if Spurs really are still interested in signing Little Bear, they apparently think that these issues are nothing that a move to North London can't fix. That may be the case. Berahino clearly doesn't want to be at West Brom anymore, and if Spurs are willing to stick around and make a second attempt at him it implies that they think that Peace and West Brom are just jerking him around at this point.

Many Spurs fans have cooled on Berahino lately after watching him (not) play at West Brom this season, but a cut-rate price of £15m does make the transfer more palatable now. He's apparently besties with Harry Kane from their time in England's U21 setup, and is young enough that he still has a high ceiling, even if he's been slacking at the Hawthornes this past season. With Spurs still needing another capable backup for Harry Kane now that Clinton N'Jie is out for a few months, there's certainly nothing wrong with stocking up on young talent. Time, motivation, and a LOT of fitness training under Mauricio Pochettino could quickly transform Little Bear back into the monster talent that we all wanted last summer.