Only a £100,000-a-week contract could have convinced Piotr Zielinski to turn his back on Napoli and put pen to paper with Premier League outfit West Ham United, according to Calciomercato.
If David Moyes seriously thought he could lure Zielinski away from the Serie A giants this summer, well then he was either very confident in West Ham’s pulling power or he simply wasn’t paying attention.
“I don’t understand where these rumours are coming from,” Zielinski said back in July, when he was being linked with Tottenham Hotspur.
“I don’t think my time at Napoli will end this summer. I’ve got a big contract with the club. It will last another two years and I’m happy at Napoli, even if I read the opposite somewhere (in the media).”
Piotr Zielinski wants to stay at Napoli despite West Ham interest
That very public rebuttal did not stop West Ham from shooting their shot, however. And you can’t blame them, in a sense. The highly-talented, often-underrated Zielinski would certainly have been an upgrade on the inconsistent Pablo Fornals, Said Benrahma and Manuel Lanzini.
This is a player who scored eight times and set up five more for one of Italy’s biggest sides in 2021/22 after all. Serie A legend Beppe Bergomi even calls him an ‘extraordinary’ footballer who leaves you ‘speechless’ more often than not.
And, in a summer of upheaval at Napoli, under-fire owner Aurelio de Laurentiis has enraged supporters with his apparent willingness to sell off the crown jewels and risk tearing down the whole kingdom.
According to Il Mattino, West Ham held talks with Zielinski’s representatives recently. Interestingly, he shares an agent with one Gianluca Scamacca. The Hammers even submitted a bid of £33 million.
But Zielinski was not for turning. Only a massive pay rise would have convinced him to walk away from a side who finished third in Serie A last term, flirting with the Scudetto until their form collapsed in the spring.
Calciomercato say that a £100,000-a-week offer from West Ham might have turned his head. The Hammers’ offer of a three-year deal worth £55,000-a-week, then, was never likely to do the trick (Tuttomercatoweb).
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