Athletic article
When Grady Diangana danced in a car park at The Hawthorns on July 22, celebrating promotion to the Premier League with jubilant West Bromwich Albion fans, it seemed like the end of a beautiful, fleeting romance.
The on-loan winger had played a pivotal role in taking West Brom to the Premier League and appeared destined to fulfil his destiny of being a star for West Ham United.
West Ham manager David Moyes had watched Diangana progress in the Championship with increasing interest and earmarked him for a role in the new, youthful team he envisioned at the London Stadium.
Slaven Bilic, the former West Ham boss now in charge of Albion, had thoroughly enjoyed working with Diangana but had little expectation of taking him into the Premier League. A permanent deal would, he believed, eat too much into his modest summer transfer kitty and another loan was a long shot, given the likelihood of the two clubs scrapping in a similar part of the table this season.
Moyes prepared to welcome Diangana into his team. Bilic prepared to move on.
Then, quickly, everything changed.
Today, the 22-year-old has completed a permanent move to West Brom in a deal that could be worth about £18 million, provoking a furious reaction from West Ham’s captain Mark Noble.
This is how the shock deal happened.
West Ham and Moyes had prepared for Albion to make their move. Diangana had performed so impressively in his 30 appearances in the Championship, scoring eight goals and contributing six assists, that West Brom were almost duty-bound to try their luck.
Moyes, though, was determined to stand firm.
“The Championship is a really tough league, so I’m pleased he was successful,†he said of Diangana at the end of last season. “I’m looking forward to having him back. It will give him the confidence of being in a winning side, and scoring and playing well.â€
Diangana had signed a new six-and-half-year contract in January 2019, so West Ham were perfectly placed to rebuff any attempt to prise him away.
Back at West Ham for pre-season, Diangana’s form on the training ground impressed coaches and team-mates and his two assists in a friendly win over Ipswich Town on August 25 got supporters excited, too.
Diangana had impressed Moyes and his West Ham team-mates in pre-season (Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
“It was lovely to represent West Ham again,†he said afterwards. “I just want to be the best I can be every day. Hopefully, I can do that and break into the starting XI.â€
On the face of it, Diangana looked set to get his wish.
But already, the sands were shifting beneath his and Moyes’s feet. West Ham needed money to fund their transfer plans and were struggling to raise it.
Moyes needs reinforcements and to rebalance a squad that lacks quality and depth in defence, as well as a potent goalscorer in attack. The club have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and despite the owners contributing a further £30 million over the summer they are short of transfer funds.
With little budget to use, West Ham’s recruitment staff could do no more than line up possible targets and wait for the money to move. West Ham hoped to sell Brazilian attacker Felipe Anderson and Argentine midfielder Manuel Lanzini, but were struggling to find takers for them.
For much of the summer, they also anticipated the exit of Declan Rice, the England midfielder and a close friend of Diangana’s — a departure that would have been unwelcome but would have solved their financial problems at a stroke. But Chelsea, his long-time suitors, went quiet and West Ham became increasingly sure Rice would stay. So if they were to bring players in, some difficult decisions had to be made.
With Albion’s interest in Diangana well-known, West Ham began to think the unthinkable. Ultimately the one position in which the club does have an excess of players is wide attackers and so the call was made to sacrifice one of their more saleable assets. Within a week, a deal was done.
That West Ham have secured a clause that guarantees them 20 per cent of any future sale goes some way to guarding against Diangana realising his future potential elsewhere, but also suggests the club know they are letting a talented player leave the building.
It was a mark of the regard in which he is held by team-mates that Mark Noble, the club’s captain, was moved to tweet: “As captain of this football club I’m gutted, angry and sad that Grady has left, great kid with a great future!!!!!†The message was shared by Rice.
When Diangana left West Brom in July at the end of his loan, he did not expect to return, despite having developed a deep affection for the West Midlands club.
What started as a season-long marriage of convenience to turbo-charge his development and push West Brom up the Championship table had turned into a close bond.
Diangana joined West Ham as a 12-year-old and had put down strong roots at the east London club, but in Albion, he found somewhere else where he felt at home. He was comfortable with the surroundings of the Great Barr training ground, developed close friendships with team-mates, especially fellow loanee Matheus Pereira, who also rejoined permanently last month, and thrived in the first-team environment.
When staff members at Albion stayed in touch as friends after he went back to West Ham, it cemented his view of the club as somewhere he would have been happy to settle.
He did not expect it to happen, but when West Ham decided they were ready to sell, Diangana was comfortable with the idea of joining Albion in a permanent deal.
There was interest from abroad — Ajax and PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands and clubs in Germany’s Bundesliga — but Diangana’s ambitions lay in the Premier League. Domestically, Aston Villa were in the frame but they had other priorities — namely, completing the purchase of Nottingham Forest right-back Matty Cash and signing a striker — so wanted Diangana to wait. Albion, in contrast, made it clear he was their top priority and wanted to conclude a deal quickly.
There was a late attempt by fellow Premier League newcomers Fulham to hijack the move by matching Albion’s bid, but Diangana was happier both with the personal terms on offer at Albion and the chance to return to a club he knew.
More than anything, he was swayed by the knowledge he would head to The Hawthorns as a crucial first-team player. Wherever he went, starts could not be guaranteed, but he knew that at West Brom he had a real chance of becoming a Premier League regular.
The idea proved too seductive to refuse. Diangana had enjoyed his year living in Birmingham and a return to the city with the chance to make it a permanent home was appealing. He has yet to settle on a place to live but the search has begun.
Diangana had no burning desire to leave West Ham. But when circumstances changed, he was keen to move somewhere he was wanted.
At The Hawthorns, the appeal of re-signing Diangana was clear but the reality was less straightforward.
He had fitted in perfectly last season, was popular with his team-mates and Bilic and, given his age and his profile, would have a re-sale value to the club — a factor deemed to be crucial.
Barring a catastrophic turn of events in his career, it was impossible to see his asking price going down.
Yet there were words of caution from some that spending a significant portion of his overall summer transfer budget in an area of the squad where Bilic was already well-stocked could leave Albion without the flexibility for other priorities.
Bilic badly needs a centre-forward capable of scoring goals consistently in the Premier League and committing the thick end of £20 million to signing Diangana threatened to significantly reduce the possibilities of getting one.
Ultimately, though, the club decided signing Diangana on the terms available was simply too good a deal to turn down. They are expected to pay a guaranteed £18 million, though not necessarily up front, and as explained above they will have to give West Ham 20 per cent of any fee if they sell him in the future.
Fully aware that relegation after one season back among the elite is a possibility, Albion wanted players in their squad who would be attractive to buyers next summer.
Pereira, signed for £8.5 million from Sporting Lisbon, is one player who would almost guarantee a profit should he move on in a year’s time. West Brom feel Diangana falls into the same category.
Diangana has joined Pereira, left, in making his move to West Brom permanent (Photo: Adam Fradgley/AMA/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images)
So, Albion pressed the button on the deal, but did their best to structure it so the fee payment is spread out across the five years of his contract.
Now comes the task of using what money is left to get “creative†and pull off other signings. They retain a strong interest in Huddersfield Town striker Karlan Grant, but the Championship club want £16 million for him. Albion’s hopes appear to rest on technical director Luke Dowling’s ability to devise a package that meets Huddersfield’s expectations while staying within their own financial limits.
Taking Troy Deeney on loan from Watford following their relegation out of the top flight has been discussed but the 32-year-old is not currently a primary target and negotiations over him have been put on ice.
The impact of landing Diangana will only truly be known when West Brom’s 2020-21 squad is finalised.
But for now, fans are excited, team-mates are enthused and Bilic and Moyes are coming to terms with the completion of a deal that neither of them expected.
(Top photo: Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United FC via Getty Images)