Valencia missed out on West Ham flop in summer but cannot afford him in January

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The La Liga club’s director of sport has claimed that the club cannot afford the Hammers star’s wages.

Valencia director of sport Suso Garcia Pitarch has told superdeporte that his club tried to sign West Ham United flop Simone Zaza last summer, but that they cannot afford to sign him in January unless he cuts the wage he is on at the Hammers.

Zaza moved to the London Stadium in the summer transfer window on a season-long loan from Juventus, a deal which can be made permanent once he reaches 14 appearances.

However, the Italian has not been a success in East London, failing to score in any of his 11 appearances to date.

There is already widespread talk that West Ham are looking to cut short the loan deal in January and send him back to Juve, to avoid incurring any further loss by paying his significant wages.

That scenario was beginning to look more likely in recent weeks as it emerged that Valencia are reportedly interested in signing the Italy international.

In fact, Los Che sporting director Pitarch revealed to superdeporte that they were actually in advanced talks to sign the 25-year-old in the summer ahead of West Ham before the deal broke down.

Pitarch said: “His transfer collapsed because it was linked with the transfer of Andre Gomes to Juventus. The latter decided to join Barcelona instead and the deal fell apart. Lemina and Hernanes could have part of the swap deal too, but Andre Gomes eventually decided to join Barcelona.”

However, Pitarch insisted that though they would still like to bring Zaza to the Mestalla next month, any deal is impossible unless the star is willing to take a significant cut on his West Ham wages.

He added: “The biggest difficulty is that the salary he now has at West Ham is absolutely outrageous, but if he could cut it, we’d consider signing him. I don’t know what the coach [ex-Italy boss Cesare Prandelli] thinks of him, but he’s a player we are watching.”

West Ham will likely be hoping that Zaza is prepared to take the cut to make the move to La Liga, as that would surely ease the flop’s departure from the London Stadium.