West Ham flexed their financial muscle to sign Taty Castellanos from Lazio.
That is clearly more of a reflection on the financial strength of the Premier League as a whole, rather than a ringing endorsement of those in charge of West Ham United.
The reality is that the Premier League can offer more in the way of untold riches than clubs like Lazio, once one of the glamour destinations in world football.
Whether the money has been spent wisely is of course an entirely different debate. Still, Castellanos did show promising signs on his debut for West Ham even despite the defeat to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.
Now the £26million man has made his bow, Lazio boss Maurizio Sarri has spoken about his departure from the Italian capital again.
Maurizio Sarri confirms Lazio couldn’t match West Ham’s wages for Taty Castellanos
Sarri was speaking after the Rome giants drew 2-2 with Fiorentina on Wednesday night.
The former Chelsea boss was asked about the departure of Castellanos, along with former teammate Matteo Guendouzi, who is set to join Fenerbahce.
Speaking to Calciomercato, Sarri admitted that Lazio just could not match what West Ham and Fenerbahce could offer their players in terms of salary. In his view, it became clear the player would leave when that happened.
“They were very important players for us,” he said.
“We’re moving into a high-level environment. If wage offers come in that we can’t match or even come close to, it’s clear the player will leave.”
Previously, Sarri has confirmed that Castellanos pushed to join West Ham from Lazio and, to his credit, he made a promising but not quite perfect start to his career there.
Taty Castellanos showed promise but his stats were underwhelming…🤐
What did YOU make of his debut?
West Ham’s deal to sign Taty Castellanos criticised despite promising West Ham debut
Clearly, it’s hard to frame his debut as a huge positive given the result.
Still, the 27-year-old Argentine did impress. Nuno was pleased with Castellanos on his debut, and only a tight VAR call denied him a role in Crysencio Summerville’s disallowed goal.
Castellanos looks energetic and even that basic trait might make a huge difference given what supporters have seen from their strikers of late. Add his obvious quality and perhaps he can make a success of it.
However, West Ham have been criticised for signing Castellanos and fellow forward Pablo Felipe while their defence remains an issue.
As ever, that’s a question for the board and probably not one that will get an answer that even approaches a satisfactory answer.
All Castellanos can do is to block out that noise and try to make an impact in his specific role. The early evidence suggests he might.
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