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West Ham’s lack of consistent vision hurting with Grady Diangana

By Scott Johnson

HUDDERSFIELD, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 10: Grady Diangana of West Ham United arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier League match between Huddersfield Town and West Ham United at the John Smith's Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Huddersfield, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
HUDDERSFIELD, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 10: Grady Diangana of West Ham United arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier League match between Huddersfield Town and West Ham United at the John Smith's Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Huddersfield, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images) /
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West Ham twitter has been rocked by the news that a bid for Grady Diangana has been accepted. If the Hammers had sorted out their business before, this wouldn’t need to happen.

When West Ham fans were sold the idea of moving to the London Stadium, we were told that we would be in control of the players that came and went from the club. But the club are now pushing the line that we need to sell to buy, and we have to accept offers on players that we want to, ideally, keep. Why is the club in such a position that we’re being dictated to by other clubs?

Well, the club have spent a large amount of money in previous windows, and apparently, we’re still paying those off. Sebastien Haller and Felipe Anderson have instalments due, and the club are unable to dip into their pockets to fund those.

But if that’s the case, then the spend in previous seasons wasn’t as high as we said it was at the time. Or we’ve paid more for these players than we’ve put out in public. So there are mixed messages at every turn. Quite simply, the board don’t seem up to providing the financial backing for a Premier League club needs.

And the board seem not to understand what the club is about, or at least what the fans want from the club because selling an academy graduate at this point is not on anyone’s list. Grady Diangana was told to go out on loan to the Championship to prove himself, did so, showed promise in pre-season and has now been told to discuss terms with another club.

How are we meant to encourage youth players to go out on loan in the future? What’s the point in spending £30 million on a player if we’re producing them cheaply in the academy, only to sell them for much less before they reach their prime? It doesn’t make financial or footballing sense.

Then when you listen to the West Ham Way podcast, and it seems that the manager and board have entirely different plans in mind. David Moyes wants to spend any money coming on on the defence, primarily a left-back. The board want to go out and spend on Saïd Benrahma, another winger. Unless we can make a massive profit on the switch, why would you sell a player integrated into the squad to replace him with a player that may or may not gel? Especially as we have a high number of wingers anyway?

Next. Losing Diangana would hurt West Ham more than losing Rice. dark

All in all, West Ham is not run in a consistent or forward-looking manner. Everything is short term, and we’re paying for that now. Grady Diangana being sold to not strengthen the side in areas the manager thinks is needed just one point in the litany of errors being made by the board at the moment. And it’s painful to see it hurt a club product like Diangana.