West Ham United transfer news as Inter Milan could turn attention to Gianluca Scamacca amid £50m blow
Inter Milan could turn their attention to signing West Ham United forward Gianluca Scamacca, if Arsenal fail to lower Folarin Balogun’s £50million asking price, according to the Evening Standard.
The report (21 July) writes that Balogun remains the Serie A giants’ number one striker target after they walked away from a £35m deal for Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku, but Arsenal’s £50m valuation is proving a sticking point despite Inter’s intentions to spend big.
The Italy international has also been linked with a loan move [Alfredo Pedulla, 19 July] to Roma this summer, as he seeks a return to his home country, but it is believed that West Ham aren’t ruling out keeping him in East London.
West Ham are increasingly reluctant to accept loan interest in the striker, who has four years left on his deal after joining from Sassuolo for a big-money £35.5m, as reported by the Evening Standard (21 July).
Still has much to offer
It’s safe to say Scamacca didn’t have the best of first seasons in England following his big-money move from Italy last summer, but the same can be said of plenty of foreign players currently at elite Premier League sides right now.
After the change of his agents and plenty of speculation regarding his future in East London, it’s looking increasingly likely that the former Sassuolo forward will move on this summer and West Ham could well be making a costly error here.
As shown in pre-season already, Scamacca still has plenty to offer David Moyes and the East Londoners and it will be rather annoying to see West Ham waste their £35m-plus investment on a player who possesses such significant bags of potential.
Scamacca is a superb talent and a player with a raft of potential to thrive in the future, for which the £35m will have turned out to be an absolute bargain should he succeed, and if there is any chance of him getting a second chance at the club, the Hammers must certainly consider it.
More crucially, there are no guarantees David Moyes will be able to secure any replacements for the Italian given the going rate for top-quality strikers in the market these days and, while he’d be a superb fit at Inter Milan, the ball remains in the West Ham’s court regarding Scamacca’s future. They should know what to do.
In other West Ham news, club sources have denied any bid for a new midfielder.