Lee Hendrie tips West Brom star to shine in PL if he bases his game on Wolves player
Ex-Aston Villa player Lee Hendrie has tipped West Brom loan star Grady Diangana to shine in the Premier League once he returns to West Ham.
Diangana, 22, joined the Baggies on a season-long loan last summer after Slaven Bilic struck a deal with his former club West Ham.
Since moving to the Black Country, Diangana has scored five goals and supplied six assists in 21 Championship appearances but struggled to feature between the festive period and before the season was suspended due to multiple injury issues.
However there is no doubt that the on-loan winger has been crucial to West Brom’s season and up until February, Albion had not won a single one of the six league games he hadn’t played in.
Hendrie believes that Diangana has shown enough to suggest he can be a hit at West Ham once his loan deal expires but he wants to see the 22-year-old base his game on Wolves winger Adama Traore.
When asked if he can see Diangana standing out at West Ham, Hendrie told Sky Sports: “I think so because in the Premier League he will have that little bit more time on the ball. The Championship is a completely different ball game; it’s a lot more intense, physical and has been superb over the past four or five years. I just think that as a young man he’s got to keep that momentum that he’s got from gaining experience playing in the Championship.
“It would be interesting to see who he looks at in the Premier League in those wide areas, whether it’s Raheem Sterling or Adama Traore or whoever. I think those are the players who stand out, so if he bases his game on what they do, he’ll be up there as one of the best wide men around. He’s got to keep that momentum, that hunger and that drive because he’s setting himself up to be an absolutely fabulous player and someone who is going to stand out for West Ham and they really need that.”
Diangana has been one of the best players in the Championship this season and if he hadn’t had his injury issues, he would have been in the running to win the player of the year award.
It will be a shame that his loan deal will expire at the end of the season and it will be tricky to sign him on a permanent basis from West Ham unless the Hammers suffer relegation.
In other West Brom news, Albion are to be handed a potentially huge boost in their bid to sign Matheus Pereira permanently.
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