West Ham signed Gianluca Scamacca from Serie A side Sassuolo in a £35.5 million move in the 2022 summer transfer window. Scamacca managed to score only eight goals across all competitions for the Hammers and the 25-year-old struggled to meet the expectations of being a quality long-term striker at the London Stadium.
After his debut season at West Ham, Scamacca returned to Serie A as he joined Gianpiero Gasperini's Atalanta and helped them win the UEFA Europa League last season. Scamacca was also a part of West Ham's UEFA Conference League winning squad, but the Hammers could have signed another proven Serie A star instead of Scamacca two years ago.
Serie A winner reveals he was very close to join West Ham in a £29 million move
The player is new Inter Milan signing Piotr Zielinski, who left Napoli on a free transfer after eight brilliant seasons at the club. Zielinski registered an impressive 97 goal contributions in all competitions for Napoli, and was an integral part of their Serie A 2022/23 winning squad.
Recently, the 30-year-old playmaker revealed that West Ham were willing to sign him previously and even submitted an opening bid of around £29 million, saying,
"Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was already convinced about West Ham's offer of €35 million (£29 million).Piotr Zielinski
Coach Spalletti called me once and asked me what I would do. And I replied that I would prefer to stay and fight for the title."
Zielinski added that Napoli were open to selling him to West Ham, however, the Poland international wanted to win the Serie A with Napoli, which they successfully managed to achieve last year. A player of Zielinski’s quality could have been a key player for the Hammers, as he can play as a box-to-box midfielder and as a playmaker as well.
On top of that, Zielinski possesses a wide range of passing and could have helped the Hammers in quickly winning the ball possession as well. However, that isn't the case and West Ham would want that star forwards such as Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus find their best form in the upcoming Premier League matches.