West Ham United have made a terrible, terrible Issa Diop mistake, by deciding to sell him to Fulham in the summer.
Hammers boss David Moyes decided to sell the 26-year-old to Fulham for around £15 million in the summer transfer window (Sky Sports).
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Now, at the time, it seemed like a decent deal for West Ham – Diop had been painfully inconsistent for us during his four-year stay at the London Stadium.
However since then, Moyes has sold Craig Dawson as well and to make matters worse, Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd are now both out injured.
West Ham are now in the midst off a real central defensive injury crisis. Surely Moyes should have kept hold of Dawson, but if the 32-year-old really was so homesick, the better move would have been to sell him in the summer and keep Diop…
West Ham have made a terrible, terrible Issa Diop mistake
The towering ex-Toulouse centre-back seems to finally be maturing into a top-class central defender with Fulham.
And how we could do with him at the London Stadium now!
He is helping Fulham fight for a top six place as well – a quite remarkable feat considering the fact that they came up from the Championship in the summer.
In 15 Premier League outings for Fulham so far this season, Diop has averaged 1.2 tackles, 1.2 interceptions and 2.5 clearances per game. During those appearances he has won an average of 1.5 aerial duels per match. Diop has made 53.5 passes per game on average and has recorded a completion rate of 85% (Who Scored).
Sure, Diop has made the odd mistake for Fulham, most centre-backs do. On the whole though, he has proven to be a very good signing indeed for the Cottagers.
The 26-year-old’s performance for Fulham against Chelsea 10 days ago was exceptional and it made me think that Moyes might just have made a massive mistake by selling him, especially with the current injury crisis at the London Stadium.
Centre-backs don’t usually mature and reach their peak until their late 20’s either. Diop has all of the ingredients needed to succeed at the very highest level. Maybe now we will start to see the best of him.
Unfortunately for us, we won’t see that happen in a Hammers shirt. West Ham would have been better keeping hold of Issa Diop in the summer. Everyone’s got 20:20 hindsight though haven’t they!
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