Baggies hoping Grady stays for season – Austin
CHARLIE Austin is hopeful that West Brom will retain West Ham United loanee Grady Diangana for the remainder of the season as speculation surrounding a potential Irons recall grows.
Diangana, 21, has been quite brilliant during his loan spell to date. He’s provided five goals – including the first in the win at Blues – and six assists, though he did hobble off at the weekend amid concerns over a pulled hamstring.
His form, though, is what has caught the eye of West Ham chiefs ahead of the January transfer window. His parent club have a two-week period next month where they can take him back to the London Stadium without Albion being able to do anything about it, but Saturday’s hero Austin remains optimistic he’ll stay put.
“It is important we keep him for the rest of the season. We want to keep him beyond January, of course we do,” Austin said after the Blues win. “He is a big part of our team, but it was always going to happen. When you get a player like that and the recall clause is there, it speaks volumes of the performances he has been putting in before January.
“For me, hopefully he stays. I want him to stay. I feel we’ve got a good core group, a good whole team ethic. He shows all the attributes and I think this is a massive learning curve year for him. If he gets this under his belt, then I think he can do whatever he likes to.”
Diangana’s injury – and the uncertainty over the severity of it – is a worry Austin admits to.
“Yes, of course it is,” he added. “It is a blow to the team but it speaks volumes for Kyle (Edwards) coming on and the job that he did.
“Diangana has done a fantastic job, he’s been a big part of our team and hopefully he comes back quickly.”
Slaven Bilic, meanwhile, wants youngster Jude Bellingham to ‘stay normal’ after being impressed by his performance against West Brom. The Blues attacker, who is just 16, caught the eye at St Andrew’s.
Putting his arm around him he gave Bellingham a small word of advice, something he was asked to explain in his post-match press conference.
“The young kid, I told him – he is 16 – I told him to stay normal,” Bilic said.
“It is not easy, it’s very hard now to stay normal.
“He is such a great talent, he is so composed, so mature, I told him to stay normal and to stay on the ground.”