A sporting director has spoken out on West Ham’s Gianluca Scamacca mistake as the striker returns to London as part of the Italy squad to face England.
He is no longer sporting his bleached blonde Eminem hairstyle but Guess Who’s Back in London West Ham fans?
West Ham paid an initial £30.5m to sign Gianluca Scamacca from Sassuolo last summer.
But he was sold to Atalanta for £3m less just one year later.
You all know the history. But the long and short of it is, the move simply did not work out as he or the Hammers would have hoped.
Illness, injuries and a clear lack of research on the type of striker Scamacca is and what he would bring to the team left both the player and David Moyes frustrated.
Moyes insisted he wanted to keep the Italian with the perma-frown. But the Scot revealed the 24-year-old simply did not want to be at West Ham and had refused to do his injury rehabilitation in England.
When Scamacca scored two goals on his first start for Atalanta, West Ham fans’ fears that he could turn out to be another Sebastien Haller looked well founded.
But his injury issues have continued in Italy, seeing him miss another month of action which saw him left out of the last Italy squad.
Scamacca is back in the Azzurri setup for the big game against England at Wembley where he will be reunited with his former West Ham teammates Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice.
Time will tell whether West Ham made the right call offloading Scamacca.
Now a sporting director has spoken out on West Ham’s Scamacca mistake as striker returns to London as part of Italy squad to face England.
Former Sassuolo sporting director Guido Angelozzi, who is now in the same role at Frosinone, has told TMW that West Ham sold a ‘champion’ striker who every club would want in their team.
And he says the former Hammer just needs to be trusted.
“Gianluca has all the characteristics of the center forward that all the teams would like to have, he needs to play, he has everything,” Angelozzi said about the forward he had at Sassuolo.
“Physicality, technique, speed and goals, he lacks nothing. If he convinces himself and everyone gives him the trust he can do it.
“He’s strong, we’re talking about a champion.”
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