Big Sam must offer West Brom hope for the future and hand debut to Cheikh Diaby
The season is petering out for West Brom but Sam Allardyce can inject some life into it by handing Cheikh Diaby his first-team debut.
With just nine Premier League games left and Albion sat 10 points behind Newcastle United in the last survival spot, time is running out to save our top-flight status.
It seems almost inevitable that we will make an instant return to the Championship and therefore we must start to look ahead to next season and weigh up our options.
That means offering game time to fringe players and any exciting young stars in our ranks.
Cheikh Diaby certainly fits the latter profile and The Athletic’s Steve Madeley labelled the 21-year-old as ‘one to watch’ in January.
“He can operate wide on the left but is primarily an explosive centre forward with a knack of scoring goals,” he said.
The timing is perfect.
As reported on the WBA club website U23s manager Deon Burton said last week: “Cheikh was involved against Man Utd in the friendly so he’s back fit and hopefully we’ll see him feature in the upcoming PL2 games.”
It’s been a rotten season for West Brom U23s, in keeping with the senior side, and they sit rock-bottom of Premier League 2 Division 2 with seven games remaining.
But Diaby is one player who has emerged with a degree of credit and he is their top scorer with six goals from 10 games [fbref].
He was named on the bench on The Hawthorns bench as we were thrashed 4-0 by Arsenal on January 2 but he has not been seen since.
That is due to a mixture of fitness issues and the number of signings made in the winter transfer window.
Mbaye Diagne and Robert Snodgrass were brought in to play across the forward area while Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Okay Yokuslu have been first-team mainstays since their deadline-day arrivals.
But with the curtain starting to close on our Premier League hopes now is the time for Big Sam to place faith in Diaby to gauge his progress and assess his chances of being a regular member of the Albion squad next season.
In other West Brom news, Steve Madeley names Sam Johnston valuation that could scare off potential suitors.
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