West Ham dodged a bullet not signing Italian duo Mario Balotelli and Patrick Cutrone as new reports highlight struggles

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It is clear for all to see that West Ham United have left Manuel Pellegrini short with their summer business.

West Ham shipped out 11 players over the summer and signed six, but only two of those were for the first team.

Pellegrini’s lack of strength in depth and variety has already been exposed just a quarter of the way through the campaign.

West Ham were dumped out of the Carabao Cup 4-0 by Oxford. And a promising start to the Premier League has well and truly fizzled out.

But the club appears to have made the right call not pushing through deals for Italian strikers Mario Balotelli and Patrick Cutrone over the summer.

Hammers wanted Italian duo

According to the likes of The Sun, West Ham were offered controversial forward Balotelli on a free.

But Claret & Hugh claimed Pellegrini had reservations about Balotelli’s attitude and in the end he signed for Serie A side Brescia.

And back in July, reliable West Ham insider ExWHUemployee claimed Pellegrini was considering hijacking Wolves’ move for AC Milan striker Cutrone.

ExWHUemployee said at the time: “We have had an interest in Patrick Cutrone for a while so this could be possible.”

Wolves ended up signing Cutrone for a fee believed to be around £16million.

Pellegrini proved right?

Now new reports from Football Italia and Sky Sports have vindicated West Ham’s decision not to sign either player.

In a feature on Football Italia headlined ‘Balotelli not making an impact’ it is reported that the former Manchester City man is ‘wasting another glorious opportunity to kick-start his career at Brescia’.

“Balotelli’s performances for Brescia so far have been anything but extraordinary,” Football Italia reports.

“It was easy to forget he was even playing against Genoa until he was substituted and kicked a pitch-side camera.”

Balotelli has one goal so far this season.

Not so super Mario and Cutrone struggle

Cutrone also has just the one goal from 16 appearances so far this season after signing for Wolves.

And manager Nuno Espirito Santo has admitted to Sky Sports the striker is not ‘where we expect him to be’.

Cutrone was substituted at half-time after Wolves fell behind to Slovan Bratislava in the Europa League last week.

And Nuno has acknowledged the 21-year-old is taking time to adapt to English football.

So it seems two bullets dodged. And that was after a section of West Ham fans banged the drum for the club to sign Balotelli too.