Grady Diangana can’t waste West Ham chance after being hauled off again

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First team opportunities in the Premier League can be very hard to come by for young players such as Grady Diangana at West Ham, but the 20-year-old cannot afford to waste his golden chance.

Given three consecutive starts following injury to Andriy Yarmolenko, Diangana has done enough to keep his place but little more to particularly stand out from the crowd and justify his selection ahead of the likes of Michail Antonio or Robert Snodgrass.

In all three of those starts, the youngster has been taken off as a substitute but Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to haul him off at half-time against Huddersfield may be the worst signal yet.

Coming after registering an assist in the win over Burnley, Diangana may now find out that there is little patience at the elite level and even though he was not playing poorly on Saturday, a change of formation cost him dearly.

Finding consistency and contributing more than tricks and flicks could be the difference between being a stop gap in the Ukranian’s absence and becoming a regular.

If he can do that, Dianga could be an exciting young talent for the Hammers, but he must learn sooner rather than later that he has to capitalise on this chance.