After impressing in his first start for West Ham, winger Grady Diangana is hoping for more first-team opportunities under Manuel Pellegrini, football.london report.
The 20-year-old shone for the Hammers in their 8-0 hammering of League Two side Macclesfield Town in the Carabao Cup, with the youngster finding the back of the net twice late on.
Since then, Diangana has also made his first appearance in the Premier League, with a brief substitute cameo appearance during a memorable 3-1 win over Manchester United.
Before appearing for the first-team, the DR Congo-born wide man caught the eye of boss Pellegrini around the club’s training facility, and has since spent his days around the training ground with the first-team.
Talking to the club’s official website, Diangana, who suffered with a back injury at the start of the season, said:
To be given the opportunity, I’m grateful.
I had to be really patient, build my game slowly and progress my game and I think it’s all coming together at the right time. At the start of the season I had a back injury, then another little niggle, but my game picked up, I had a few good runs in the U23s and the opportunity came.
This is what I want. For me, I think I developed my talent since I was young and my mindset is something I want to keep developing and getting stronger. For me, the belief I’ve got in myself now, I believe I can hopefully make a difference to the team and to be in and around things would be great.
With Pellegrini clearly a huge fan of the energetic winger, Hammers fans may well see Diangana in the matchday squad on a regular basis following the international break.
