West Ham United legend Trevor Sinclair has taken a pop at Manuel Pellegrini over his decision to let Grady Diangana leave on loan.
Diangana was shipped out on loan to Championship side West Bromwich Albion in the summer.
After bursting onto the scene under Pellegrini last season, academy graduate Diangana was hailed the new Santi Carzola by the Chilean.
West Ham’s alarming nosedive
This summer – with the arrival of £24million Pablo Fornals and the return from injury of Manuel Lanzini and Andriy Yarmolenko – Pellegrini decided to loan Diangana out.
West Ham started the season well but have nosedived from third in the Premier League to 16th over the last two and a half months.
All of West Ham’s attacking players have struggled in that time.
But up at the Hawthorns, Diangana has become one of the stars in West Brom’s promotion title charge.
His goals, assists and regular moments of outrageous skill have lit up the second tier.
Tricky Trev questions Pellegrini’s Grady decision
The latest came against Swansea on Sunday as the Baggies coasted to a 5-1 win. Diangana produced an amazing moment of skill, which you can see here on Sky Sports.
Upon seeing Diangana’s performance, West Ham hero Sinclair questioned Pellegrini’s wisdom.
“Who let Diangana go on loan (he is on fire),” Sinclair said on Twitter.
Sinclair makes a salient point. And many West Ham fans do and will agree with him.
Sinclair comment easy with hindsight, Pellegrini made right call
But the criticism is a touch harsh, particularly with the benefit of hindsight.
Six weeks ago when the Hammers were flying high, nobody was questioning the decision to loan Diangana out.
Apart from three or four games after his breakthrough last season, Diangana faded badly and was very poor.
If anything the reason he is playing this well is BECAUSE of the loan which has seen him play a lot more football than he would have otherwise.
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