West Bromwich Albion seemed like they had struck an exceptional deal when they managed to convince West Ham United to allow Grady Diangana to leave permanently.
The winger had enjoyed a successful loan spell at the Hawthorns, but speculation had mounted over whether the Hammers would allow one of their star prospects to leave.
Will Diangana come good for West Brom?
Yes
No
When the deal was sanctioned, fans were in an uproar. Even club captain Mark Noble took to social media to claim: “As captain of this football club I’m gutted, angry and sad that Grady has left, great kid with a great future!”
His feelings were known, but an £18m fee represented a coup for the Baggies and decent value for the Irons at the time.
However, with how the move has gone, it seems like the pendulum has swung massively in favour of it being a far better deal for West Ham.
Eight goals and seven assists helped propel West Brom to promotion from Championship, however just one goal the season following saw them drop straight back out of the Premier League.
Under the pressure of the top flight, the 24-year-old crumbled.
In his most recent full season, during the 2021/22 campaign, he scored twice and assisted just once in 41 appearances. His form has dropped dramatically, and what was a big outlay at the time only seems to look more and more of a ludicrous deal.
So, with just one Premier League goal and 11 Championship goals, he has cost the club a worrying £1.5m per league goal.
Not only this, but on a wage of £20k-per-week he has likely cost in total £23m.
It has been a transfer nightmare for a club clearly struggling financially. They could only muster a total transfer spend of £1.21m last summer, relying on Steve Bruce to bring in predominantly free transfers.
What seemed like a sharp piece of business has turned sour quickly for West Brom, who are reliant on him to be their star man because of his price tag.
West Ham will be delighted with how this saga has turned out, whilst Bruce is left picking up the pieces.
