Luke Hatfield and Joe Masi discussed all the latest West Bromwich Albion news on the most recent edition of the Express and Star’s Baggies Broadcast podcast and Masi spent some time talking about the Baggies’ chances of signing West Ham United’s Grady Diangana, who was on loan at The Hawthorns for the 2019/20 season, on a permanent deal ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
While he did spend some time sidelined due to injury during the 2019/20 season, it may be fair to say that Diangana enjoyed a positive spell on loan with the Baggies last term as he ended Albion’s promotion-winning 2019/20 Championship campaign as the club’s joint-third-highest league goalscorer and their third-highest rated player, according to WhoScored, as he was given an impressive overall rating of 7.13 from his 30 league appearances for Slaven Bilic’s side.
It was reported as far back as January that West Brom were interested in signing the 22-year-old winger on a permanent deal, however, more recently, reports have claimed that Diangana ‘is set to play a key role in David Moyes’ team next season’ at the London Stadium and in July, the Hammers boss was quoted as saying that he is “looking forward to getting him back.”
During this recent edition of the Baggies Broadcast podcast, Masi shared his thoughts on the possibility of Albion signing Diangana on a permanent deal this summer.
He said: “I don’t see Diangana coming back. Look, I’m not an expert on West Ham, so I only know the brief stories that I’ve read, but I think we have to take the David Moyes quotes with a pinch of salt.
“A lot of papers are saying that [West Ham] have to sell before they can buy, so I think we have to be careful with what Moyes says, because if they do have to sell before they can buy, he’s not going to talk down Grady Diangana. If Grady Diangana is available for transfer, he’s going to want to get as much money as he possibly can for him.
“There are two things in Albion’s favour. One, he loves the club. He absolutely couldn’t have had a better year with them, he absolutely loved every minute of his time at The Hawthorns; the other positive is that he really, really wants to play.
“From what I hear about Grady, he’s really screwed on, he can see how much playing has been integral to his development, he does not want to sit on a bench. He’s absolutely adamant he wants to play next season. So, they’re two big plusses, because if Albion get him, he will play.
“The negatives are – £20m, I just don’t think Albion will spend £20m on a single player.”
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The Athletic’s Steve Madeley wrote an article back in April naming Diangana as ‘West Brom’s most important player’ and with that in mind, as well as his positive league goalscoring record from the 2019/20 Championship campaign, it may not come as a surprise if the Baggies are targeting him in this transfer window.
However, if West Ham do want to keep him for the 2020/21 Premier League campaign, as reports have claimed, then the Baggies may struggle to sign him from a direct league rival and it may be understandable why Masi shared some doubt over the likelihood that this transfer will occur, despite naming a couple of factors that are “in Albion’s favour” in terms of securing the player’s signature.