Gianluca Scamacca faces an uncertain future at Premier League outfit West Ham United and his former Sassuolo chief ‘would not be surprised’ to see him return to Serie A this summer.
He may not have scored during Sunday’s thrilling 2-2 draw at the London Stadium. But Michail Antonio, starting ahead of Danny Ings and the injured Scamacca, added further flesh to the bones of the argument that, even at 33, he remains the player best-suited to lead the line for a David Moyes team.
For all of Scamacca’s strengths, the Italy international lacks Antonio’s ability to run the channels. His hassling, harrying and his penchant for turning defence into attack with a trademark buccaneering run. Scamacca instead relies on high quality service. Service which has been in short supply at an underachieving West Ham side lacking in creativity.
Like Sebastien Haller before him, Scamacca is starting to feel like a square peg in a round hole in claret-and-blue. A fine centre-forward, yes, but maybe not a ‘David Moyes centre-forward’.
Could Gianluca Scamacca leave West Ham already?
Reports suggesting that West Ham could bring in Spezia’s M’bala Nzola may raise further questions surrounding Scamacca’s future; AC Milan and Juventus among those reportedly taking an interest.
Sassuolo CEO Giovanni Carnevali certainly believes that a man who scored 16 Serie A goals in 2021/22 will not be short of offers if he decides to cut his losses at West Ham.
“I haven’t spoken to Gianluca,” Carnevali tells Gazzetta dello Sport. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if he returned to Italy. For Juve or any other top Italian clubs, he would be an opportunity.
“There aren’t many ‘number nines’ with Scamacca’s characteristics in Serie A.”
Scamacca has just three goals in 11 Premier League starts for West Ham. There does remain, however, a fairly high chance that Scamacca outlasts Moyes in the English capital, reports indicating that the Hammers are eyeing up potential replacements for the Scot, even if Moyes did ease some of the pressure on him during Sunday’s fightback against Arsenal.
Scamacca, meanwhile, is a long-time target of Juventus. That is according to the 24-year-old’s former agent, Paolo Paloni.
Juventus, Paloni says, came within touching distance of signing Scamacca before investing £72 million on Dusan Vlahovic instead.
“Only the signature was missing.”
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