Since Simone Zaza arrived at West Ham, we’ve been covering the almost instant spate of articles from Italy stating he could return home, such has been his form for the London club.
Yet to find the back of the net or assist one of his teammates in nine appearances, the striker is being touted as a potential January signing for Napoli in Serie A, after the club lost Arkadiusz Milik to a serious injury during the last international break.
One of the keys to this deal potentially happening is for the player to make enough appearances for West Ham that a clause in his contract gets triggered, meaning the Hammers would have to pay the rest of the reported £25m fee (around £20m, or €22.7m).
From this moment onwards, Napoli would only have to deal with West Ham, instead of Juventus, something they would rather do.
As far as we can remember, the number of games Zaza needed to play to activate this clause was 10, but Il Mattino in Italy, a Naples based newspaper, appear to have different information, claiming it’s actually 14.
This would mean Zaza is still free to make at least four more appearances before West Ham have a serious decision to make: play him one more time and pay up, or just leave him on the bench for the rest of the season.
Of course, if Napoli promise them they’ll pay them back the vast majority of the fee sent to Juventus, the deal could be far easier to wrap up.
Left on the bench for the 1-1 draw against Stoke last weekend after seven straight appearances, it’ll be worth keeping an eye out on how many more appearances he makes before January.
