Slaven Bilic’s hopes of landing Grady Diangana in a permanent West Brom deal this summer look entirely remote.
Speculation has been doing the rounds the former Hammers boss would be ready to go to £15 million for a player whom the Baggies fans have taken to their hearts since he arrived at the Hawthorns on loan.
Bilic knows the player well from his Irons days and is believed keen to snap him up but the Hammers are disinterested in any proposals at this stage.
All clubs are looking hard at the home market with no football being played, and no revenue streams as a result, but the Hammers are keen to hold on to Diangana anyway.
We were told by a senior insider by e-mail: “Obviously there can be no decisions made of that sort given the current circumstances.
“But Grady was sent to West Brom to gain regular first team football and that’s what he has been getting when not injured. In the present circumstances we have no interest in selling him.”
This is a dilemma, unproven at PL level, not guaranteed to start for us with Anderson, Bowen and Antonio all ahead of him. I also believe we will buy another forward during the summer if we stay up. Could the best decision be to loan him out to West Brom again next season and see is he ready for the PL, the only negative here is that if does not cut it at PL then we will get a lot less for him the following year. We could sell for a 15m fee and include a buy back option. Interesting to see what the club decides.