You couldn’t make it up as poor Gianluca Scamacca now faces being replaced at West Ham by his new striker rival Mateo Retegui

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You couldn’t make it up as poor Gianluca Scamacca now faces being replaced at West Ham by his new striker rival Mateo Retegui.

West Ham forward Gianluca Scamacca just cannot seem to catch a break at the moment.

To say It has been a difficult debut season for Scamacca at West Ham is an understatement. And things seem to have gone from bad to worse of late.

He has suffered illness and injury this season as West Ham battle relegation.

The forward was then dropped by the agency who brokered his move to the London Stadium.

The £35m summer signing has been an unused substitute in West Ham’s last four Premier League games.

David Moyes has publicly criticised the striker’s output in training while being forced to deny there had been a falling out between the pair when speaking before the international break.

Scamacca did start and scored in the easy win over Larnaca in the Europa Conference League last 16 second leg last time out.

But he was substituted after just 55 minutes sparking further criticism of Moyes, who had to defend his decision after the game.

Scamacca was billed as the future of the Italian national side by Roberto Mancini when he arrived at West Ham from Sassuolo in the summer.

But he was relegated to the bench by Argentinian forward Mateo Retegui – who only qualifies for Italy through the “Irish granny” rule – for games against England and Malta.

Retegui is owned by Boca Juniors but plays his football on loan to Mexican side Tigres. But he started ahead of Scamacca in both games.

And to rub salt in the wound Retegui scored in both matches as West Ham’s forward watched on from the bench, getting just 30 minutes on the pitch over the two games.

That was despite Mancini making EIGHT changes to the Italy starting XI for the Malta game.

The Azzurri boss then made it clear he now sees Retegui as the main man up front after comparing him with legendary striker Gabriel Batistuta.

With the future of both Scamacca and Michail Antonio uncertain beyond this summer, it is no surprise to see West Ham already being linked with interest in a number of forwards.

And you couldn’t make it up as poor Scamacca now faces being replaced at West Ham by his new striker rival Retegui.

That’s according to a new report from Gazzetta dello Sport which claims West Ham are among the clubs who have opened preliminary talks with the Argentina-born forward.

The report claims Retegui’s success on his first Italy call-up has alerted Italian clubs and West Ham. But the Hammers could hold the ace card given the superior spending power of Premier League clubs.

“If the price increases and Retegui continues to score also in Argentina (he has averaged 0.7 goals per game from 2022), the risk is that he would become unreachable for Serie A clubs, right at the moment that Mancini has called him with the national team,” Gazzetta reports.

“The great rival remains the Premier League, where the spending power can cut the Italians out. Gianluca Scamacca’s West Ham have already asked for information.”

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