Sunderland and West Ham United were linked with the now-lethal striker in 2016.
Tuttomercatoweb reported in May of 2016 that Ciro Immobile was on West Ham United’s radar.
The Italian publication claimed that the 26-year-old was a target for West Ham boss Slaven Bilic if he failed to sign Christian Benteke, which of course he did.
But in retrospect it looks like the Irons made a major error in not pursuing him anyway because, at the moment, he is one of Europe’s red-hot hitmen.
The Italy international, who wound up joining Lazio that summer for around £7.8 million, has netted 13 goals in eight starts across all competitions so far this season.
To put that into context, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi has 14 goals in 11 starts.
Nobody is suggesting that Immobile will have a Messi-type season but he has made an outstanding start to the campaign and perhaps if the West Ham boss could turn back time he would have snapped him up.
Hindsight is a great thing and there was every reason for Bilic to be reluctant – Immobile had only scored nine times in 29 games for Torino and Sevilla that season – but it makes you wonder whether he would have shone with the likes of Dimitri Payet, Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio supplying him. We’ll never know.
Six months before his link with West Ham, the former Borussia Dortmund man was also linked with a January move to Sam Allardyce’s Sunderland and, again, you can’t help but wonder what path Sunderland would have taken had they snapped him up.
The Chronicle reported that the Black Cats – who are now in the Championship – had identified him as a target in Allardyce’s first transfer window since succeeding Dick Advocaat on Wearside.
However, the former Sunderland manager did not sign a striker in that window, sticking with Jermain Defoe, Dame N’Doye and Fabio Borini as forward options.
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