Diangana drama keeps West Ham plot bubbling
After a hiatus, the long-running soap opera about fractious east London folk has returned. No, not Eastenders, which is back on the television screens after a three-month break, but that other perennial and infinitely more fascinating east London drama: West Ham United.
When Mark Noble posted his tweet at 9.13pm on Friday it should have been followed by the “doof doof ” drum beats of the opening bars after a cliffhanger at the end of an Eastenders episode. “As captain of this football club I’m gutted, angry and sad that Grady has left, great kid with a great future,” Noble wrote in a hammer blow for the club’s owners.
There was a sense of shock, although there will be no action taken against Noble, who remains the captain and, as is widely acknowledged, has done so much for a club he cares deeply about.
So often the crisis club, fans – and clearly players – were furious at the sale of Grady Diangana to newly promoted West Bromwich Albion for an £18 million fee that is apparently payable over three years – which will anger the supporters even more.
But, even by West Ham standards, this was going early. arly. The season has not even started arted while there was barely half an hour between the sale of the winger nger being announced and Noble’s e’s response. Declan Rice liked d the tweet, Arthur Masuaku replied lied with a broken heart emoji and a new fire was lit in the smouldering sense of dissatisfaction aimed at owners David Sullivan and David Gold.
It got worse. “Go and do your thing in a club that respects you. Big player with a big future,” wrote Jack Wilshere on Instagram, which may have felt even more of a kick to the West Ham owners given the injury-prone midfielder’s desperately poor return for the club he joined in
2018 on a three-year deal when they wanted to offer him only a 12-month contract.
It was Manuel Pellegrini who insisted on the longer contract for Wilshere and there is no doubt that selling ng Diangana is part of an ugly mop-up operation for the money wasted asted during the Chilean’s ill-judged time in charge. The name Roberto Jimenez will resonate for years given how disastrous the goalkeeper was and other Pellegrini signings have also flopped.
What does not help West Ham – and other Premier League clubs grappling with the same problem – are the ramifications of the coronavirus crisis. Already the club have lost a quarter of their home match-day revenue from last season and are budgeting for being up to 75 per cent down during this campaign, while there is their part of the £330 million rebate due to the broadcasters sti still to be absorbed and a clai claimed
£200 million of exp expenditure under Pellegrini to be dea dealt with. Unfortunately fo for West Ham, it comes at a time wh when the club do not have cash to sp spend in the transfer market and had been banking on generat generating funds before they could in invest. But it is not a seller’s marke market. As one senior source put it: “W We have no funds so we had to sa sacrifice a player and we had n no offers for anyone els else.”
It is a lo lopsided squad and whi while the blame may pa partly be pinned on Pel Pellegrini and his direc director of football, Mari Mario Husillos, it is a corp corporate failure. Quit Quite how West Ham managed to stoc stockpile wide play players and not have enou enough defenders is extremely extre odd and is sympt symptomatic of a club who ha have veered in various directions without a clear road map. To co compound the situation, a n number of those players are no not only earning very high wages but are older and, therefore, even more difficult to shift.
West Ham would certainly much rather sell Fe Felipe Anderson bu but would not get a anywhere near the £36 million – then a club record – they paid for him. So Diangana was, indeed, sacrificed. “Only time will tell if the Diangana sale was a big mistake or a good sale,” the source said, and the reasoning is that West Ham will use the money to buy an experienced central defender, which manager David Moyes says he needs, with a bid already tabled for Burnley’s James Tarkowski.
In four pre-season games West Ham have not kept a clean sheet – culminating in conceding five to relegated Bournemouth at the weekend – while only the four teams who finished below them last season let in more goals.
The West Ham hierarchy regard the sale of Diangana as logical and although that may be the case, they have played an undeniable part in allowing the imbalance in the squad to develop. There has been a
lot of waste and it is a shame that a 22-year-old academy graduate who, by all accounts, was impressing in training and wanted to stay, had to go to cover the mistakes.
In saying that, Diangana made only a handful of appearances for West Ham and it is interesting how his sale has become a fresh rallying point for the unhappiness with the owners. It feels like dangerous ground is being trodden even before the season has started, which raises the pressure on Moyes, who is caught in the middle.
West Ham have gambled by selling Diangana. It is a calculated risk and, as is accepted, only time will tell if it was worth it.
Above all though, it is a warning to the club and their owners that just as there is little money in the bank so there is little credit with the fans in what could be a testing new plot in this enduring soap opera.