A star West Ham wanted to sign under both Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes could face five years in jail over a betting scandal.
Back in 2018 West Ham embarked on a near £100m splurge to fund then manager Manuel Pellegrini’s summer spree.
One of the Chilean’s big targets was said to be then Genoa centre-back Armando Izzo.
The likes of Sky Sports and talkSPORT claimed West Ham wanted to bring Izzo to the London Stadium.
In the end the move did not materialise and instead West Ham signed Fabian Balbuena.
Balbuena and Dawson signings look better than ever
Two years later Izzo was being linked with the Hammers once again, this time under David Moyes.
After Covid the summer transfer window for 2020 went into October. And as the days ticked down to the deadline, Moyes was desperately searching for a new centre-back.
Hammers News reported claims at the time from West Ham insider ExWHUemployee that the Scot was weighing up a move for Izzo.
In the end West Ham signed Craig Dawson on an initial loan in what would prove one of the best bits of business in the club’s modern history.
Well it seems the Hammers very much dodged a bullet on both occasions.
Because the star West Ham wanted to sign under Pellegrini and Moyes could face five years in jail over a betting scandal.
Izzo is owned by Torino – where West Ham’s Nikola Vlasic is on loan – but has been on loan at Monza. He has three caps for Italy.
Star West Ham wanted to sign under Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes could face five years in jail over betting scandal
Now, as reported by the likes of Football Italia, the defender has been found guilty of associating with the Neapolitan Mafia and sporting fraud over a betting scandal from his time at Avellino.
Izzo has always maintained his innocence in the investigation that has been going since 2016. And the former West Ham target will be appealing.
The prosecutor in Naples suggested a sentence of four years and 10 months for Izzo in December 2022 and on Thursday news agency Ansa reported the verdict came down with a sentence of five years.
The way the Italian justice system works, though, means this is only the first stage of the process and someone is not considered guilty until the fourth and final level of the appeals process has been completed.
But had West Ham signed Izzo on either occasion the club would have been dragged through this lengthy process.
West Ham fans are already extremely fond of both Balbuena and Dawson. Perhaps even more so in light of the news from Italy regarding Izzo.
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