To think, all the Mark Noble-led furore about Grady Diangana’s contentious departure from West Ham United and in the end that £18 million sale to West Brom proved to be fairly justifiable.
Skipper-turned-sporting director Mark Noble was furious when he heard Diangana was leaving the London Stadium back in the summer of 2020. And he wasn’t afraid to let the West Ham United bosses know either
“As captain of this football club, I’m gutted, angry and sad that Grady has left,” Noble wrote on his official X account. “[Diangana is a] great kid with a great future!”
In Noble’s defence, he was not the only one urging West Ham to give a chance to a 22-year-old Grady Diangana. He had scored eight goals while providing seven assists during a terrific loan spell at West Bromwich Albion in the previous campaign, after all.
But it’s fair to say that when The Baggies invested nearly £20 million in a player who dazzled during his early days under Hammers hero Slaven Bilic at the Hawthorns, this is not the way they envisaged Diangana’s eventual departure coming about half-a-decade later.
Former West Ham United starlet Grady Diangana could swap West Brom for Spain
Looking back now, while Noble had a point, West Ham clearly knew what they were doing when they accepted an £18 million offer from a West Brom side boosted financially by their return to the Premier League in 2020.
In four seasons as a permanent member of the Baggies squad, Diangana has only once matched the numbers he produced during that initial loan spell in the Midlands.
And when West Brom released their official ‘retained list’ towards the end of May, Diangana was one of those placed firmly in the free-agent category. His contract expiring, and West Brom giving up hope of making any sort of return on an eye-watering £18 million investment.
Given that Diangana missed only seven matches due to injury in the last two seasons, fitness issues cannot really be blamed for a rather underwhelming end to a West Brom career which promised so much but ultimately delivered relatively little.
Consistency was certainly an issue, however. Furthermore, following the emergence of Tom Fellows and the signing of Mikey Johnstone from Celtic, Diangana ended up featuring more often from the bench than he did from the start during the 2024/25 Championship campaign.
Though thanks largely to the presence of former West Brom boss Carlos Corberan in one of European football’s hottest hot seats, Diangana could yet, if it is not too harsh a phrase, fail upwards.
Former La Liga champions Valencia are keen on Diangana
Fabrizio Romano reports that, while Al-Ettifaq have contacted Diangana as they prepare to lose former Birmingham, Everton and Leicester City wideman Demarai Gray, the former England Under-21 international has an extremely tempting offer on the table from Valencia.
A bona fide sleeping giant, Valencia won two La Liga titles this century and also reached the Champions League final in successive seasons. Los Che have fallen on much harder times since then of course, due to the disastrous ownership of a despised Peter Lim.
But the mid-season arrival of Carlos Corberan had a galvanising effect on a young, renewed Valencia roster. A young roster led by Javi Guerra; the Spain starlet has been watched by West Ham but plans to stay put for another season.
Relegation certainties when he arrived, Marcelo Bielsa’s old Leeds United assistant Corberan eventually guided Valencia to within four points of the European places.
Diangana, having turned 27 in April, would be something of an older head in a baby-faced dressing room should he take the very seldom-used path from West Bromwich to the Castellon coast.
But back West Ham, while he may have been right to express his concerns over the sale of the club’s most exciting young talent, Mark Noble would probably have to admit that he might have overreacted a smidge.
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