Saido Berahino's former teammate Glen Johnson has said that the striker is capable of making an impact for Sheffield Wednesday, despite his previous comments about the forward.

Johnson and Berahino were previously teammates at Stoke City, where the striker's efforts did little to impress the former England international.

Speaking about Berahino's stint at Stoke back in 2019, Johnson had told TalkSport that the attacker had had the wrong mentality from day one, and had always been going against the grain while with the Potters.

Having left Stoke and joined Belgian side Zulte Waregem shortly before those comments from Johnson, Berahino returned to England last month, completing a permanent move to Sheffield Wednesday.

Now it seems as though Johnson believes that Berahino has the potential to get things right during his time at Hillsborough, if he can get himself in the right mindset.

Giving his verdict on how Berahino could fare for the Owls, Johnson was quoted by The Sheffield Star as saying: “Obviously I worked with him for a while and obviously I haven’t seen him for a few years, so I don’t know whether he’s bucked his ideas up or not, but he’s capable of scoring goals.

“It’s all about him, really. If he gets his head right and wants to work hard and wants to perform, then I believe he can. It’s up to him. He’s got a lifeline, he’s got another opportunity. Let him show us what he can do.” Berahino's debut for Sheffield Wednesday could come when they face travel to Home Park to face Plymouth Argyle on Saturday afternoon.

The Verdict

It does seem as though Johnson has a point with what he is saying about Berahino here.

The striker proved when he first burst onto the scene with West Brom that he can make an impact in the Premier League, so there is no doubt he has the quality to have an influence in League One with Wednesday.

However, as Johnson has referenced, and as we have seen with his time with Stoke in particular, that is no guarantee of success for Berahino, who did seem to struggle with the scrutiny he came under after such an eye-catching start to his career.

Even so, his time out of the limelight in Belgium may have helped, and those past comments from the likes of Johnson out to be a big source of motivation for Berahino to succeed here, something Wednesday could be about to benefit from in the next few months.