In August, Corriere dello Sport reported on West Ham’s interest in Roberto Piccoli.
The London club had reportedly made contact to try and sign the Italian, who was valued at around €30m by Cagliari. West Ham missed out on the player to Fiorentina and the Hammers weren’t able to bring in another young striker, as had seemed the plan at one point
With the experienced Niclas Füllkrug now out of action again due to injury, the 24-year-old could have been useful in the Hammers squad.
Cagliari sporting director Guido Angelozzi has spoken to Tuttomercatoweb about how Fiorentina signed Piccoli after other clubs failed to do so.
Angelozzi revealed that the Rossoblu asked for a very high fee for ex-Atalanta man, saying: “His purchase just before the Fiorentina match was a coincidence.
“Fiorentina had been interested in the player for some time and wanted to speed up the purchase process. We had several negotiations for Piccoli, with the top four in Serie A and several foreign clubs. We asked for an exorbitant fee – perhaps not even the president expected the transfer to reach that figure.”
The Cagliari sporting director insisted Piccoli was sold for an ‘unmissable’ offer and a decision was made after a meeting at the club.
“As for the transfers, Piccoli and Zortea were only sold for unmissable offers. Faced with certain offers, we all met together and made the decision to sell them.”
West Ham probably weren’t prepared to go high enough for the youngster, and it doesn’t sound like they were the only club to take that stance.
Piccolo scored ten goals for Cagliari last season in a loan stint, and it was the highest goalscoring tally of his career.
