“I think you’d expect him to stay until June.”
Those were the words of Grégoire Defrel’s agent on Tuesday morning, as Calciomercato managed to get hold of Giampiero Pocetta amid reports that West Ham are interested in the Sassuolo striker.
TuttoMercatoWeb even reported on Monday that the Hammers were in ‘pole position’ to sign the 25-year-old forward from the Serie A club, yet Corriere dello Sport on Tuesday see it otherwise.
In their eyes, the Italian newspaper reckon AS Roma are the likeliest to sign Defrel, with a few meeting having taken place between the two clubs over the past month.
Luciano Spalletti sees the Frenchman as a potential stop gap for Mohamed Salah when the Egyptian leaves for the African Cup of Nations, while Slaven Bilic would prefer to play him up top, as Simone Zaza’s day at the London Stadium appear to be counted.
Sassuolo are reported to want around €15m for their star striker, who has scored 10 and assisted four in 24 appearances so far this season, a fee lower than what West Ham would have had to pay Juventus had Zaza met the number of appearances to trigger the clause in his loan deal.
Marseille are also rumoured to be interested, but, having never played in France before, but you would think the prospect of playing in the Champions League with Roma or the Premier League with West Ham would be more appealing.
While Pocetta didn’t sound like he wanted to move his client in January, the agent also made it clear that ‘anything can happen in the market’.
If West Ham were to slap €15m on Sassuolo’s desk, they’d consider it, and, let’s be honest, what’s £12.6m when you desperately need a striker, especially one Slaven Bilic is said to ‘rate highly’?
