The relationship between Alessandro Diamanti and West Ham was a strange one; one that never really worked, yet the Italian’s name is one still sometimes fondly remembered by members of the then Upton Park faithful.
The Italian arrived from Livorno for £6m or so, spent a season in London before being sold back to Italy, as Brescia welcomed him for a £2m fee.
Diamanti’s exit was because he wanted to return to his home country, but he did later admit he might have left West Ham a bit too soon.
During his time with the Hammers, he scored eight goals and picked up six assists in 30 appearances, but had things gone his way, he might have had a very different 2009-10 season.
He said, relayed by TuttoMercatoWeb: “I was close to Inter, yes. Moratti really wanted me because I reminded him of Recoba. Then they took Mourinho who said ‘who?’. He wanted Deco, my agent rang me to tell me that and told him [Mourinho] was right.
“Then Deco went to Chelsea and I rang my agent to see if it could happen. He told me: no, now he wants Sneijder. I told him again he was right. In the end, I went to West Ham. Considering they then won the treble, they did well”.
Over the course of his nomadic career, Diamanti has played for 15 different clubs, ranging from AlbinoLeffe in Italy to Guangzhou Evergrande in China, eventually ending up in Australia where, at the age of 36, he has still managed to score five goals and assist another seven in 19 league appearances.
