West Ham United: Inquiry is a distraction

ExWHUemployee believes that West Ham United’s interest in Sassuolo striker Gianluca Scamacca is being used as a ‘distraction tactic’ in order to get a deal for Chelsea’s Armando Broja over the line.

One of West Ham’s biggest needs this summer is a new striker to compete with current starter Michail Antonio, who is the only recognised striker in the squad.

As a result of this, they have been linked with a few names already this summer including Broja and Scamacca, who both impressed last season in the Premier League and Serie A – but neither has moved on so far.

However, Ex believes that the reported interest in Scamacca is more down to forcing the hand of Chelsea to sell number-one target Broja rather than the club genuinely wanting to sign the Italian forward.

He said on The Transfer Show: “West Ham made an enquiry yesterday [Tuesday] for Italian forward Gianluca Scamacca from Sassuolo. That actually was a sort of verbal enquiry and an attempt to sort of establish what the price may be for him. We’ll see where we go with that.

“I can’t help but think that might be a distraction tactic to try and get Broja over the line, but we shall see what happens in the coming weeks.”

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TIF Thoughts on Broja v Scamacca…

Acquiring either Broja or Scamacca would be a great coup for the east London club as they desperately need another option up top and both have shown they have bags of potential at a young age.

Last season, Broja bagged six goals and one assist while ranking in the 86th percentile for aerial duels, 82nd for interceptions and the 81st for dribbles completed.

Meanwhile, Scamacca scored 16 goals and recorded one assist across all competitions while ranking in the 93rd percentile for non-penalty goals and the 84th for total shots per game compared to strikers across the top five leagues (as per FBRef).

While Scamacca bagged more goals than Broja, the Albanian may possess the advantage of already having Premier League experience at a lower-level club in Southampton. Therefore, playing in an improved side like West Ham with the likes of Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen could see his numbers shoot up and allow him to realise his true potential.