We all knew West Ham wanted a striker over the summer, what with their strong interest in Michy Batshuayi and Alexandre Lacazette, and they ended up getting one. Well, two.
Simone Zaza and Jonathan Calleri arrived in quick succession towards the end of the transfer window, but both are yet to score a goal for the Hammers despite their combined 18 appearances.
The Italian has since become a target for Napoli, who want the former Juventus striker as an alternative to Manolo Gabbiadini, who is also struggling in front of goal, but this has all been covered 35 times over.
What hasn’t been covered, however, in much detail is the fact that West Ham were also interested in Gabbiadini over the summer, which is a bit amusing now that Napoli want Zaza to replace him.
We did cover the odd article about it, but what was never reported, and has been now by Il Mattino, is the fact the London side made a bid for the Napoli striker.
As you may have guessed, the bid was rejected, most likely due to the fact that it was inferior to one made by Wolfsburg last January, and the Serie A side had just sold Gonzalo Higuain to Juventus.
At the time we wrote: “Considering Aurelio De Laurentiis’ reluctance to lose Higuain in the first place, we highly doubt he’d be happy to see Gabbiadini leave as well, unless it’s for an exorbitant fee that would, in turn, allow him to convince Inter Milan to sell Mauro Icardi.
It could all lead to a domino effect, but, to be honest, we highly doubt the first push will ever happen.”
It seems that first push did actually happen, it just wasn’t strong enough to actually topple the domino.
