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West Brom boss Irvine: We must protect Berahino like Everton with Rooney, Barkley

West Bromwich Albion boss Alan Irvine is wary of protecting Saido Berahino from the media spotlight.

Irvine was at Everton when Wayne Rooney broke into the side and also worked with Ross Barkley, and believes Berahino has the same mentality as the England pair.

"If you are going to be a top player, you have to have a lot of the full package," he said.

"Everyone talks about technical, tactical, physical, psychological. You cannot be a top player unless you score highly in all of them.

"You might score more highly in a couple of areas but you can't possibly be a top player if you don't score highly in all. Saido has a lot of that package but he is still at that age where it can go one way or another.

"The last thing you can do is have anything that affects any of those areas. Of course, the biggest of all is the psychological. I have been fortunate enough to have worked with a number of very talented young players over the years.

"Others too - Everton had a record of getting 16-year-olds into first teams so it is very important we spend time talking to these boys and making sure everything is right."

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