Saido Berahino next club odds: Chelsea make favourites to sign West Brom striker despite Newcastle interest

Newcastle are being linked with an £18m bid for Berahino but Chelsea have overtaken Tottenham as the bookmakers' favourites to be the striker's next club

Saido Berahino is keen to leave West Brom (Getty Images)

Chelsea have been made surprised favourites to sign West Bromwich Albion striker Saido Berahino, despite reports suggesting that Newcastle could be poised to make an offer for the 22-year-old.

Berahino will be allowed to leave the Hawthorns this month if another club comes in with the right offer, with West Brom believed to be holding out for a bid in the region of £23m. Manager Tony Pulis admitted last week that Berahino is for sale, and has left him out of the starting line-up since the 3-2 defeat by Leicester on Halloween.

According to the Daily Mail, Newcastle manager Steve McClaren is prepared to make an £18m bid for the England Under-21 international, but bookmakers’ have installed Chelsea as favourites to be Berahino’s next club.

Both SkyBet and BetVictor have priced Chelsea at short odds to land Berahino this month – with the latter making the Blues odds-on favourites – while the majority of bookmakers have already suspended the market on Berahino to leave West Brom.

The Blues are keen on adding to their strike options given the lack of support offered to Diego Costa this season by Loic Remy and on-loan Radamel Falcao. Both have suffered with injury this season, and it meant that former manager Jose Mourinho had to stick with Costa even when he was out of form during Chelsea’s poor start to the season.

Guus Hiddink has admitted that the club are looking at possible January transfers but has refused to name any of his targets, although the Stamford Bridge outfit have been linked with a move for Berahino this month.

Tottenham have been classed as the front-runners for his signature having failed in their pursuit to land him in the summer, when West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace blocked a move to White Hart Lane despite Berahino making his intentions clear that he wanted to leave the Baggies.

Spurs remain interested as they seek support and cover for in-form striker Harry Kane, while both Leicester and Stoke have also been linked with Berahino in the last week in what could quickly transform into a Premier League bidding war.

Should that prove the case, Chelsea would stand the best chance of having a bid accepted by West Brom given their significantly larger spending power due to their Champions League participation, although with a new Premier League broadcast deal set to kick in next season, clubs lower down the table are prepared to spend big this term in order to maintain their top flight status.