West Ham flop Nikola Vlasic is one of the players central to an astonishing physical fight between a manager and sporting director caught on video.
West Ham look set to try and offload Vlasic this summer.
And Italian club Torino have been heavily linked with a move for the Croatian after he failed to establish himself in east London following a £26m move which, if certain clauses were met, would rise as high as £33m (Evening Standard).
Vlasic was given just 1,637 minutes spread over 36 appearances for West Ham last term (Transfermarkt). A damning indictment given Moyes’ shallow squad and mammoth season.
Serie A club Torino made it clear they want to reach an agreement with West Ham over a summer transfer for Vlasic.
Reports in Italy last month claimed West Ham want at least £22m.
But Italian outlets La Stampa and Football Italia reported that Torino were asking for some help from the Hammers to get a deal done by sanctioning an initial loan and subsidising some of his wages.
Torino’s manager Ivan Juric made a “special request” to his sporting director Davide Vagnati to sign the West Ham player, a fellow Croatian (Tutto Mercato Web).
Juric is a huge admirer of Vlasic and was hoping to build the Torino team around him.
Vagnati came to London last month to work on deals but not for his manager’s prime target.
There have been tensions between Juric and Vagnati ever since, with a lack of signings – coupled with the loss of their captain and alleged former West Ham target Andrea Belotti as well as Gleison Bremer to Juve – central to the fallout.
And that fallout came to a head during astonishing scenes captured on camera during Torino’s pre-season retreat in Austria.
It seems West Ham flop Vlasic is central to a physical fight between the manager and sporting director caught on video.
Juric had made his anger at the lack of backing he has had to sign Vlasic and other targets clear, so Vagnati visited the training camp in Austria to calm him down according to Football Italia.
But the meeting had the opposite effect as the pair were filmed in a heated row which got physical as they had to be pulled apart.
Juric had sent a message to Vagnati and the club’s owner Urbano Cairo in a pre-season game by fielding a starting XI of reserves and youth players, some of them out of position, as a way of showing how limited his options are.
The pair were secretly filmed clashing in the car park of Torino’s Austria retreat and the video was leaked to the Italian press.
Extraordinary scenes. A transcript of the row has been published on Football Italia.
Just imagine for a moment something similar happening between David Moyes and Rob Newman at West Ham.
The clash is likely to see Torino renew their efforts to placate Juric and sign his targets such as Vlasic.
That’s after the sporting director later insisted he ‘hugged it out’ with Juric after the altercation and vowed to act fast to bring players in for him (Football Italia).