All hell broke loose when these two Hammers left the club but what are they up to now and how are they getting on at their new clubs?.
Jeremy Ngakia refused to sign a new contract with West Ham last season even rejecting a short term deal for the remainder of the season.
The free-agent then joined Championship club Watford but has failed to hold down a regular starting place in the second tier football league.
He has often been substituted and in recent games in January comes on as fresh legs for the last ten to fifteen minutes.
Kiko Femenía appears to the favoured right back in recent games as Watford sits in third place pushing for promotion.
Grady Diangana is also suffering under Sam Allardyce after he took over West Brom.
Big Sam was appointed on 17th December and Diang has made just our appearances and has been substituted off for three of them.
His last game under Sam was a 4-0 defeat against Arsenal on 2nd January and he hasn’t featured since including missing the game against West Ham last because of an unspecified injury.
Diangana was West Brom’s record club signing at £18m and that went a long way to lose Bilic his job, whether Allardyce sees him an important part of his team to avoid relegation remains to be seen.
With hindsight maybe it was a good deal for West Ham after all. He too looks like he is heading for the Championship unless Sam can pull off a miracle.
How much did we get for Ngakia in the end?
Still waiting for tribunal and compensation
I wonder how gutted Mark Noble is now? I always thought Grady was a bit lightweight, and Ngakia leaving brought us Coufal. Win-Win, eh?
It’s unfair on Diangana specifically to suggest that because he is struggling in a poor team who have spent the majority of the season on the back foot, the team was right to let him go?! He was excellent in the championship when West Brom were flying and needed a season of bedding in. Selling him and signing benrahma will never make sense to me.
He was indeed excellent in the championship. Think that says it all. To me he always looked lightweight and somewhat naive. Perhaps experience would cure both of these but we cannot really afford to wait. In 17 league appearences for us he had 1 assist and the grand total of 0 goals. I honestly think we did fantastic business getting 18 million for him. Benrahma also has his faults but he’s strong,quick, has great feet and a powerful shot. His faults are already being worked through and although I had my own doubts, he is looking better with every game. I think he ‘s already a better premier player than Diangana and will only get better.
Apart from Stanislas at Bournemouth I can’t remember any young players we allowed to leave going on to becoming premiership players. Players such as Rob Hall and Freddie Sears seem to disappear into the lower divisions.
Would be great to have an interview with Gnakia and hear how He feels about his move away now.Maybe His career is just about money,maybe his family convinced him,maybe it was his manager.He is still naive and young.So many what if’s, but I will bet all the tea in China that He regrets his decision now.