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Steve Clarke bristled when asked about Saido Berahino last year.

“He’s our secret...we don’t want everyone to know too much about him.”

That, pretty much, was the gist of what Clarke had to say when asked about his young striker following a friendly at Walsall 15 months ago.

At that point Clarke even gave serious consideration to giving Berahino a run-out in league matches.

It never happened. Albion signed Romelu Lukaku and Markus Rosenberg – Berahino was allowed to go out on loan. That was then.

This week, while on England Under-21 duty, Berahino scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season.

Try as Clarke might, that ‘secret’ is no longer under the radar.

It’s not often I advocate handing out new contracts to footballers – for starters, it’s a sad reflection on where we are as regards player power that one only has to play a few games before he’s handed a new deal.

But Berahino is different.

Apart from the fact he’s ‘only’ on £850 a week – a generally poor salary for a League One player, let alone a Premier League goalscorer – it also leaves Albion somewhat vulnerable.

Those stories you see about Berahino being linked with Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea, they are being pushed by an agent who knows he can easily get his client an offer elsewhere.

The interest may, or may not, be there but it’s fairly clear and understandable that his name should be in circulation.

The very notion that those stories are only intensifying tells you the urgency of this particular saga from Berahino’s party.

Clarke, too, will want this matter resolved. While the contract remains unresolved, the questions about it will keep being asked in press conferences, the stories will keep appearing, the agent will continue to filter out more ‘news’ to his pals in the media. The player might even become ‘unsettled’. It’s how the industry works.

But there is another aspect to this, one which extends way beyond keeping the wolves from the door.

With Albion considering the future of their youth system in the light of the Elite Player Performance Plan, there is a real message they can send out.

Izzy Brown took the depressingly predictable option of chasing the kudos and money of a move to Chelsea. He’d have been better off staying where he was – but that’s easy to say.

This whole saga sums up modern football. Perhaps Albion need to join the game.

A young player emerging through Albion’s ranks will now be looking at how Berahino’s career with the club is being shaped, how well he is nurtured and how he is rewarded.

It’s a sad state of affairs that we’re even speaking about a new deal for a kid who has barely played ten times.

But that’s what football has become. Albion need to move with the times.

It’s no secret any more.