While West Ham were able to rely on Diafra Sakho against Manchester United at the weekend, the Hammers will not be able to do so in the near future after the Senegal striker picked up a hamstring injury.
Without him for around four weeks, Slaven Bilic and his staff have choices to make, including who will lead the line against United on Wednesday night, this time in the EFL Cup.
Playing Zaza would take the London stadium contingent one step closer to the having to pay Juventus £20m to make the loan deal a permanent transfer.
This is exactly what Napoli are waiting for, according to Il Mattino on Tuesday, having made their intentions clear to the Premier League club, and the decision could be key for the Serie A club’s season.
The Italian newspaper claim Maurizio Sarri are ‘desperate’ to get a deal done for either Zaza or Genoa’s Leonardo Pavelotti due to Manolo Gabbiadini’s inability to find the back of the net since Arkadiusz Milik’s injury.
The striker, who has only scored two goals all season, was taken off in the 64th minute of a 1-1 draw to Sassuolo on Monday night and handed a joint worst 5/10 by the local newspaper for his performance.
Then again, a lot can happen between now and the transfer window, and both players could end up scoring the goal that kick starts a purple patch.
Things could be very different in a month’s time.
For now, though, both clubs are desperate for someone to finish their chances.
