Sent on loan to Torino for the season after falling out of favour under David Moyes at West Ham United, Nikola Vlasic is enjoying himself in Italy.
His early performances were spectacular, as he scored three goals in his first four games, and while his decisive strikes have died down a bit, his overall play remains very promising for the Hammers.
We say this because the aim of the loan for West Ham is for Vlasic to return to his CSKA Moscow form, which would then lead Torino to trigger the €15m option to buy in the loan deal.
That would allow the Premier League club to recoup some of their initial expenditure, and while there have been reports that talks are already underway regarding that, his continued success will only boost those chances going forward.
His latest came in a 2-1 win over Udinese at the weekend, with Gazzetta dello Sport explaining that ‘he does many things’ for the team.
For example, he was at the heart of the team’s first goal, as his ‘skilful touch’ is what allowed Valentino Lazaro to set off the play that led to the ball finding the back of the net.
The newspaper even go as far as giving him a 7/10 for his performance, which is the same rating as Pietro Pellegri’s, whom they dubbed ‘the best’ on the day.
It just shows how important the West Ham loanee is to the Serie A side, with previous reports making it clear he was one of two untouchables under Ivan Juric; such is the manager’s trust in the Croatia International these days.
