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Funds and the fury: players react to Diangana exit as West Ham target Tarkowski

https://theathletic.co.uk/2047862/2020/09/07/diangana-noble-tarkowski-moyes-players-anger-deferrals/

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It took the West Ham United captain Mark Noble less than half an hour to publicly register his anger at the club’s sale of their talented young winger Grady Diangana to West Bromwich Albion.

At 9.13pm on Friday night, Noble wrote on Twitter, “As captain of this football club I’m gutted, angry and sad that Grady has left, great kid with a great future!!!!!”.

The message was endorsed by Declan Rice, the club’s prodigious young England midfielder, and The Athletic understands that the anger was shared across the dressing room. The effect of the sale was said to be two-fold: on the one hand it created a funereal atmosphere among a squad who had been hugely impressed by the 22-year-old in pre-season, but it was also said to have brought a group who had been in good spirits this summer even closer together, uniting them in opposition to what had happened.

West Ham’s hierarchy were understood to have been unimpressed by Noble’s intervention, though there is no suggestion he will be punished. The club admitted that the decision to sell the player had been taken “reluctantly” and only so that they were able to “strengthen the squad in different areas at this time”.

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The Athletic understands that the fee for Diangana is about £18 million but that the money will not necessarily all be paid up front. It is believed West Ham have also negotiated a 20 per cent sell-on fee. West Ham consider that to be good business for a player who is unproven in the Premier League.

The logic to the deal from West Ham’s perspective was that they simply did not have the funds to strengthen the squad this summer without generating money through player sales. Ideally, this would have come from offloading the likes of Brazilian attacker Felipe Anderson and Argentine midfielder Manuel Lanzini but the club have been unable to find buyers.

The club’s statement also spoke of the need to bring “balance” to the squad. With Anderson still around, Diangana would have been competing with him, Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio and Andriy Yarmolenko, where as other positions are nowhere near as well stocked.

David Moyes desperately needs to strengthen his defence — a fact underlined by conceding five goals against Bournemouth on Saturday — and The Athletic understands that the club followed up the sale of Diangana by making an increased second offer for the Burnley centre-half James Tarkowski of £22 million that could rise to £27 million with add-ons.

When you consider that West Ham, who recorded a pre-tax loss of £28.2 million in their recent accounts and whose wage bill rose by more than a quarter last year to nearly £136 million, have been hard hit by the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, then the financial realities they are dealing with become clear.

The owners contributed a further £30 million to the club over the summer and still they were short on transfer funds. As The Athletic reported on Friday, West Ham’s recruitment staff had lined up possible targets but could only wait for money to become available. As the club said after selling Diangana, “the money received for Grady will be reinvested entirely in the team, in line with the manager’s targets”.

The frustration for the supporters and, clearly, the players too, is that Diangana would appear to have embodied everything that Moyes has spoken of when discussing the sort of player he would like to have.

“I want to stop the idea that what we’re doing is just buying someone who will fill the gap,” Moyes said in January. “I want it to be the vision for the club that we’re looking to bring in young, attractive, hungry players who are saying, ‘We’re going to make West Ham better’.

“I know about footballers and I think players who are hungry and players who are trying to climb that ladder, trying to be Premier League footballers, we have to have a mix of that.”

It would appear to describe Diangana perfectly. The winger had been with West Ham since the age of 12, had played a starring role helping West Brom to promotion and was flying in pre-season, hungry to prove himself worthy of a place in the Premier League in east London.

Instead, he will start the season back at The Hawthorns, for a club against whom West Ham may well be battling for survival this season.

“The lads are gutted. He’s a real talent. The manager’s come out and said he wants to build a young, hungry team. Then you sell your talent,” said a West Ham source.

An additional frustration for the players is that in April, when Moyes, vice-chairman Karren Brady and finance director Andy Mollett took a 30 per cent pay cut, the players, led by Noble, agreed to pay deferrals. They were among only a handful of Premier League clubs to agree to reduce their wages in some form. West Ham said the payments were to retain jobs and allow them to pay non-playing staff salaries in full.

Despite those measures, the club still had to sacrifice one of their young talents to fund any squad improvement. “They’re fucking the lads,” a source said.

It is understood West Brom, who had budget considerations of their own, at one point considered trying to sign the player on loan again to preserve funds for other much-needed additions.

When word reached them that West Ham needed to sell, they decided to try and strike a permanent deal before the London club were able to raise funds by shifting another player.

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How Diangana’s departure is judged in the longer-term could yet be decided by how West Ham use the funds his exit has generated. The Athletic understands that West Ham first approached Burnley early last week and have made two bids so far for Tarkowski, with the second coming on Friday night.

It is understood that the 27-year-old is Moyes’ No 1 centre-back target. West Ham’s manager has been a big fan of Tarkowski after being impressed by him when he played for Oldham against Everton in the FA Cup back in 2013. He has tracked his progress since and after Tarkowski moved to Burnley, Moyes tried to sign him again for Sunderland. At that point, Tarkowski was back-up to Michael Keane and Ben Mee but the defender wanted to stay and fight for his place.

It is understood that Burnley believe the player is worth more than that second potential £27 million offer and manager Sean Dyche wants to keep hold of his impressive centre-back, who played 90 minutes against Hearts in a pre-season friendly on Saturday and is focused on his football.

The defender has just under two years left on his deal, so it is Burnley’s best chance to capitalise on selling him for a good fee and not a cut-price deal in 12 months time. The danger is that Burnley could face a situation of losing the player on a free, as they did recently with Jeff Hendrick, with the player able to sign a pre-contract elsewhere in 18 months time.

With no fee agreed between Burnley and any other club, there is no decision for Tarkowski to make yet. West Ham would be able to offer him a much more lucrative contract, with their average earner paid roughly double what Burnley’s top earners are. It may also enhance his England chances, with the player understood to be disappointed to miss out on Gareth Southgate’s England squad again despite ending the season in sensational form.

Whether a deal for Tarkowski, or any other defensive additions, will be enough to heal the pain caused by Diangana’s departure remains to be seen.

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