Report: Defender rejected lucrative West Ham offer; joins club that finished 16th last season

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Serie A side Torino confirmed the signing of Ricardo Rodriguez from AC Milan last week. The Swiss international is in Turin for a medical today and Gazzetta dello Sport have revealed some new information about the choices he had before choosing his new club.

Rodriguez’s career at Milan was truly underwhelming. He never fully managed to show his form from Wolfsburg and was shipped out to PSV Eindhoven on loan in January as a result.

Milan were clearly looking to part ways with the Swiss international and Torino were keen, which made a deal pretty straight forward. However, Rodriguez could easily have moved to London to play in the Premier League.

Gazzetta dello Sport claim that West Ham United were interested in signing the former Wolfsburg defender and had even offered a contract to lure him in to the London Stadium.

The report hints that the Hammers’ offer was worth more money than that of Torino, but Rodriguez rejected the move in favour of a reunion with his former boss, Marco Giampaolo.

The report claims that Torino and Giampaolo’s project proved more ambitious than West Ham’s which made up Rodriguez’s mind. That really is a shame considering that both sides are pretty much on the same boat at the moment.

Torino, like West Ham, finished 16th in the table last season, just five points above the 18th-placed team. If the Irons cannot convince a player to join them over a team that had a similar campaign to theirs, they will likely struggle again next term.

That really is worrying for West Ham supporters. The Irons have spent a lot of money over the past two years and have a few really exciting players in the squad.

However, that isn’t appealing enough for some of their targets which should ring alarm bells in David Moyes and the owners’ heads ahead of the new Premier League season.