Steve Bruce focused on getting Grady Diangana back to West Brom best – The Athletic
Steve Bruce is pulling out all the tricks at West Brom to get Grady Diangana back to his exciting best, writes The Athletic’s Steve Madeley.
The attacker lit up the Hawthorns during a loan spell from West Ham, but since the club made it back to the Premier League and his stay was made permanent he has struggled, and reportedly would have sought to leave had Sam Allardyce stayed in the summer.
New manager Bruce appears to have identified the 23-year-old as a potentially key driver of success over the final months of the season and is doing everything he can to make that happen, having “praised his talented winger in public and shown him admiration in private” including the “clearly calculated” move to call him the Championship’s best player two seasons ago.
Writing in The Athletic Madeley says: “Steve Bruce is going through his full repertoire of man-management tricks with Grady Diangana.
“The calculation is clear — show the former West Ham man enough love and boost his confidence to such a degree that he can forget about his troubles of the last two years and rediscover the form that made him a favourite among Albion fans.
“Bruce is banking on his famed skills of confidence building to finally unlock the rich potential in Diangana.”
Potential master stroke
If the former Newcastle boss can bring out the form that saw the ex-Hammer score eight and assist six while on loan in the Midlands it will go a long way to securing a playoff place at least for the end of the season.
It is somewhat ironic that the mere fact that the Baggies were able to buy him in the first place has contributed to his lack of ability to perform for them, such was the disappointment he felt at being let go from East London.
But the managerial upheaval in the 18 months since has certainly not helped.
The entire team underperformed under Slaven Bilic in the top flight, and the fire-fighting style of Allardyce after his arrival was not the system to allow Diangana to thrive.
Madeley reports that the England U21 international had stayed in order to work with Valerien Ismael but, as with so many things, the Frenchman’s reign didn’t result in the benefits that were expected.
But it is in everyone’s interest now for the player to be encouraged back to his best, as his career is stalling and the club need to see a return on the significant investment as the new boss looks to achieve his main task of securing promotion.
In other West Brom news, one former manager has trashed the Ismael episode at the Hawthorns.