Ousmane Diakite's 'pride' at recent West Brom impact as midfielder opens up on first season Albion struggles
Ousmane Diakite has had to be patient for his chance at West Brom.
Arriving from Hartberg in Austria last summer - the Malian's first start for the club was a disappointing defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
It was a rare one - and his first season at the club mainly consisted of substitute appearances and the odd outing from the start.
The start of this campaign has been much the same for the midfielder - but recent months have seen him get his first run of starts in the side.
In the absence of Jayson Molumby and Toby Collyer, Diakite started a number of games before the return of the pair.
And he has impressed, along with putting in key cameo appearances from the bench later in games.
The 25-year-old, who is out of contract in the summer, expressed his 'pride' at how things have improved for him at Albion - and outlined how he wants to go the extra mile to keep improving.
Diakite told the club's matchday programme: "I am proud of myself because I want to learn every day, in every training session and if I didn't do something right, I go to the gaffer to ask why and if I ever need to work on something specific, I will speak to one of the gaffer's coaches and we'll spend some time after training working on it.
"I trust myself. I know my identity, what I can do and we have got a lot of games to play.
"It's true that every player wants to play every single game, but the decision for that comes from the gaffer and I believe in his decisions.
"That way, I can be focused and be ready every single minute of every game to put my energy and power into helping my team mates get as many three points as we can."
The Malian's career path saw him begin in his native country - before a move to Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.
After a number of loan spells he moved to Hartberg - before achieving his 'dream' with a move to England with Albion.
But it wasn't all plain sailing for Diakite - who has described the difficulties during his first season at the club.
He added: "I am very, very happy to be here. When I first came to Albion, there were a lot of challenges for me to face but as I always say, it was one of my biggest dreams to play in England and that dream was realised.
"After achieving that and moving here, I asked myself a question, 'what do I have to do now?'
"And that was to show my personality.
"There have been times where I haven't always got what I've deserved and it's been hard, but that is life.
"Everything here was different for me, I was on my own, my family wasn't here and sometimes when I talk about these things it makes me see how hard it was.
"It wasn't easy, but now I'm okay and feel I have more freedom than last year."
