West Ham United reap Gianluca Scamacca rewards amid Kylian Mbappe PSG implosion
Gianluca Scamacca is not just proving his importance on the pitch for West Ham currently but by his absence in France, which causing problems for Paris Saint-Germain.
The Italian arrived from Sassuolo in the summer for £35.5million and after a tentative start where David Moyes resisted throwing him into the Premier League he has now started to hit form, scoring in the Hammers’ past three games in all competitions, all wins.
Meanwhile the circus at the Parc de Princes is in full swing already, with global superstar Kylian Mbappe wanting to leave the French champions just months after singing a new extension, due to being unhappy at playing as a number nine this season [Guardian, 11 October], having requested a new central striker be brought in this summer [RMC Sport, 29 September].
The Ligue 1 giants had made a late attempt to hijack the Irons’ signing of Scamacca as he was one of the options to fulfil that request, and were obviously unsuccessful, leaving Mbappe unhappily playing through the middle when he wants to be wide.
Writing on his personal Twitter account on Tuesday evening (11 October) European football expert Andy Brassell said of the situation: “Hands up if you had Scamacca going to West Ham instead of Paris on ‘why PSG will implode this season’ bingo card?”
As the new West Ham striker gets into a rhythm in the capital it will likely not have gone unnoticed with the French superstar, and rightly so.
The 23-year-old has now scored six in 12 across all competitions since he arrived, with his spectacular volley against Wolves for his first in the Premier League on 1 October leading to the start of a run of much-need improved form for the club.
He then came on as a substitute to score the winner away to Anderlecht in the Europa Conference League, before producing a wonderful finish for his third successive strike in the 3-1 win over Fulham at the weekend, despite a long VAR check for handball.
Fans waited a full 18 months for the club to finally sign some support for Michail Antonio, and currently the signs suggest it was worth the wait.
The Italian international didn’t come cheap but the meltdown currently occurring across the channel shows that it was money that needed to be spent ahead of the French super club.
That Scamacca himself stuck with his move to the London Stadium and turned down PSG’s late advances will make him all the more popular with the West Ham support, although continuing to find the net on a regular basis will do that well enough on its own.