Earlier today, we covered some of the praise Nikola Vlasic was receiving in Italy following his loan move to Torino from West Ham United.
The Croatian found a return to the Premier League at London Stadium quite difficult, despite David Moyes’ side spending close to £30m on the midfielder, and didn’t feature anywhere near as much as expected.
This led to questions being asked about his future at West Ham, which eventually ended with him being loaned to Italy, where he now gets to work with Ivan Juric, a compatriot of his.
It’s gone really well so far, with three goals in his first five games, and Corriere della Sera labelled him uncatchable in their coverage of the match against Lecce, where he scored the winning goal.
What’s rather surprising is that Urbano Cairo, Torino’s owner, didn’t even know who the player was when he signed, as he admitted to DAZN, relayed by Toro, that he was pleasantly surprised by the acquisition.
He said: “Vlasic is a great player. All the credit goes to Davide Vagnati and Ivan Juric because I didn’t know him. He’s strong, has already scored three goals. I’ve already congratulated him.”
All this good news surrounding the deal means that Torino, according to Calciomercato, are already ‘rubbing their hands’ at the prospect of potentially signing him for €15m.
That’s the fee West Ham agreed to in the loan deal as an option to buy, and despite his ‘dark year in England’, which ‘made him lose his smile’, the Croatian has lost none of his talent.
Considering Milan, who wanted him last summer, were quoted €30m by CSKA Moscow (the fee the Hammers ended up paying) and ‘decided to abandon’ a return for him this year after his poor season in London, Torino could be seen as having pulled off quite the coup.
In fact, Calciomercato state that ‘time will tell who was right, but the feeling is that Torino have made a deal’.
