With the summer transfer window well underway, West Ham have started stockpiling players to fill out their roster and take the next step forward. With plenty of forwards and right-sided players, what happens next for Grady Diangana?
Regardless of West Ham’s signing of Spaniard Pablo Fornals, this question was going to exist for Manuel Pellegrini ahead of this season. His young starlet is deep down the pecking order at West Ham and surely needs time to play next season to continue to develop. So where does this happen?
Firstly, Diangana isn’t really even close to the top of the depth chart. Andriy Yarmolenko will be back to start the season, Michail Antonio impressed in the second half of last season and Robert Snodgrass was solid all season long. All players are ahead of Grady, making it nearly impossible for him to get match time.
Add in Pablo Fornals, a central attacking midfielder who can and has played (extremely) well on the right side, and it’s very hard to see any path to first-team football this season for Diangana.
HammersPolls on Twitter asked the Irons’ supporters their thoughts on where Diangana should play and the results are in:
What we doing with Diangana now?
— Hammers Polls (@HammersPolls) June 14, 2019
🗳🔁💬
648 voters and a majority of them (including us) settling on a loan for the youngster in 2019/20. But, where should he go? Realistically, if Grady wants to continue to grow he needs first team football and he needs the competitive, senior level he would face in the Championship. Sitting on the bench would do him no good, so a team with few options on the right side would be perfect.
Two teams stick out for me: Swansea and Fulham. Swansea just sold their starting rightwinger, Daniel James, to Manchester United and must fill that gap. A loan from West Ham could fill this void and replace the loss of free agent Luciano Narsingh. Currently, only 31-year-old Nathan Dyer is left on the right side.
Newly relegated Fulham also have a depth problem on the right side. Lazar Markovic is out of contract and that leaves just 21-year-old Luca de la Torre as the only right-sided player left on the team. Grady wouldn’t have to even move from his West Ham home, staying in London and staying comfortable.
It’s clear that Diangana can’t stay at West Ham next season, but with Yarmolenko and Antonio approaching 30 and Snodgrass also up in age, there could be a place for him soon. If Diangana gets and keeps starting minutes in the Championship the sky is the limit for his development.