West Ham’s transfers last summer have not exactly seen them take the Premier League by storm.
They spent £45m on Sebastien Haller, the striker who scored 20 goals and provided 12 assists for Eintracht Frankfurt last season, but he has found the back of the net on just seven occasions in the English top flight since then.
Albian Ajeti, who scored an impressive 43 goals in 96 appearances for FC Basel in Switzerland, may have cost just £8m, but he has fared even worse – he is still waiting for his first goal for the club. Pablo Fornals has done slightly better, although two goals and five assists may not be the expected return from a £24m investment.
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Grady Diangana, though, could have provided potentially more quality at the London Stadium, and he wouldn’t have cost a penny – that is because he was already on the club’s books before the start of the campaign. Instead, though, it is West Brom who have enjoyed the fruits of his talent, on loan.
Even in just 17 starts for the Baggies in the Championship, he has shown his ability. He has managed five goals and five assists as the Midlands outfit have climbed to the very top of the second-tier table. There have been plenty of positive aspects about his play – he has completed 2.3 dribbles per match, and has also made 1.3 key passes, for example.
Interestingly, that latter stat is considerably more than Fornals, who has managed just 0.6 per match in the Premier League. That is not to say that Diangana is necessarily a better player, but it certainly gives food for thought.
According to a report from The Sun on Sunday (March 8th, p59), West Brom would like to take him to the Hawthorns permanently if they get promoted – this is something West Ham can’t allow to happen.
He may have only managed one assist in 17 top-tier games last term, but his performances this campaign should earn him another bite of the cherry.
Letting him go before giving him another chance would be a blunder they can’t afford to walk into.
Meanwhile, West Ham fans slammed this star against Arsenal.
