David Moyes insists he really didn’t want to sell player who left West Ham in the summer

Add as preferred source on Google

West Ham boss David Moyes has admitted that he didn’t want to sell Issa Diop to Fulham in the summer transfer window.

The Hammers signed the 25-year-old centre-back from Toulouse in the summer of 2018 for around £25 million (The Mirror).

Despite the fact that West Ham lost £10 million by selling the Frenchman to Fulham, it now seems like a fantastic deal for the East Londoners.

The ex-Toulouse defender has proven time and time again over the past couple of years that he isn’t good enough to be playing at the very highest level.

And the Fulham fans are starting to see that now as well.

In the eight Premier League games that Fulham have played since Diop arrived at Craven Cottage, the centre-back has made just three appearances, with two of those matches ending in defeat.

In spite of his obvious limitations, it seems as though David Moyes actually wanted to keep the centre-back around…

Moyes wanted to keep Diop at West Ham in the summer

The Scot had a real problem at the start of this season, with Nayef Aguerd and Craig Dawson out injured and Angelo Ogbonna nowhere near match fitness.

On top of all of that, Thilo Kehrer had not even arrived at the London Stadium.

And Moyes told reporters yesterday that he actually would have kept Diop if he could have, as quoted by Football.London:

We liked Issa [Diop] a lot, we would have liked Issa to stay. At that time, we were having difficulties with centre-halves. We liked Issa a lot, but his choice was he wanted to go and play more, and in the end we granted it. It was a difficult one for us, because we were really short of defenders at that moment.

Considering our defensive injury problems at the time, it wouldn’t have been a surprise had Moyes decided to keep Diop at the club.

Thank God that didn’t happen in the end though.

Issa Diop out and Thilo Kehrer in for a £5 million profit has got to be the best piece of business that any club in the Premier League did in the summer transfer window, pound for pound.

Moyes may have wanted to keep Diop at West Ham in the summer. Moving him on was undoubtedly the correct decision though.

Read also:

‘Special’ player was so close to leaving West Ham in the summer transfer window

‘Really good’: Fornals names the West Ham new signing who’s impressed him already