Report: West Ham to keep flop forward Zaza

West Ham are likely to keep Simone Zaza and pay the €20million buyout clause in his contract, according to reports in Italy.

Tuttosport report that the Hammers are set to invest the money in the hope that the 25-year-old can return to the form that he showed at his previous club Juventus.

Zaza signed for Slaven Bilic on loan for the season for a fee of £4.3million but he has flopped with West Ham struggling to hit the heights of last season.

He has failed to score in five starts and 460 minutes of Premier League action, but Bilic has maintained his support for the player.

“He was different class,” Bilic said after the win at Crystal Palace last month. “I told him after the game that this is the Zaza I know from Sassuolo and Juventus.

“The goals will come, the goals are very important for the strikers but I want to see him like this.”

Zaza is two games short of automatically triggering a €20million buyout clause in his loan agreement and it appears the club have decided to honour that deal and hope, rather than renege on the terms laid down in the summer.

His father Antonio Zaza confirmed the clause in October, he told Tutto Juve: “He is on loan from Juventus with an obligation to buy after 10 appearances. I think he has four or five so far.

“He needs to settle, he has totally changed the way of playing. He is fine, you have to wait. There are no other problems. He is happy to be there. I repeat, they have another way of playing, it is not easy to settle in.”

Zaza has been linked with a return to Serie A,  but it now appears Bilic will put his faith in the forwardm who scored five times for Juve last season.