West Ham supporters were up in arms when a decision was made to sell Grady Diangana but now with hindsight, it looks like a good piece of transfer business.
West Brom’s £17m record signing is said to have cost Slaven Bilic his manager’s job but the player is struggling to make a major impact in the Championship.
In twenty-one appearances in the Premier League for West Brom last season he only managed to score one goal against Everton with no assists to show for his time on the pitch.
He has appeared in five Championship games so far this season for the Baggies starting four of them but has been substituted in three of the four games he has started without scoring a goal or an asisst.
His last game against Peterborough saw him substituted on 57 minutes by another former in the form of Jordon Hugill on loan from Norwich City. They obviously don’t think their £3m signing is up to the Premier League challenge so have dropped him down a division.
Captain Mark Noble was very vocal at the time of Diangana’s departure but I am sure he would admit that Grady would struggle to get in David Moyes team now.
Moyes at the time said diplomatically that he understood the need to balance the financial books to re-invest elsewhere in the squad.
Sometimes club owners need to make tough decisions, this one was proved correct.
I think some fans did realise that it was a great decision at the time. I would say this summer we also ended up making some good decisions i.e. not signing Abraham. Abraham woudl have been a poor signing. I also believe we should not go back in for Lingard again as his decision to stay at United says all for me. I believe in the winter window if we are to make an attempt to sign a forward we should try everything to sign Hlozek.
Got to hold my hands up, I was one of those incensed supporters and was taught a lesson under our manager. Moyes knows his players intimately and much better than I could ever know them, working within a budget was a blinding decision in hindsight.
I must admit I thought we were wrong to sell him at the time. He’s had a lot of injuries since then though. So lucky we sold him when we did in the end.