West Ham land on Gianluca Scamacca replacement as new Serie A star tipped to join thanks to ‘excellent relations’

As rumours continue to swirl around Gianluca Scamacca’s future, West Ham have reportedly identified another Serie A striker as his replacement.

Scamacca hit 16 goals in 38 appearances for Sassuolo last season, resulting in interest from Premier League clubs. Arsenal were backed to sign him, but instead the Italy hitman went to West Ham.

According to Sky Sports, David Moyes’ side paid Sassuolo £35.5million when capturing Scamacca on a five-year contract.

West Ham fans were very excited about the deal when it was anounced. They had been looking for another centre-forward to compete with Michail Antonio for several transfer windows and had finally solved that problem.

However, Scamacca has not lived up to expectations at the London Stadium. He has only found the back of the net eight times in 28 matches, and just three of those strikes have come in the league.

Scamacca’s disappointing form is one of the reasons why West Ham are languishing in the bottom three. They sit in 18th place with 24 points from 26 matches.

Despite Scamacca’s struggles in England, he has emerged as a transfer target for Inter Milan. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Inter are searching for a striker successor for 37-year-old Edin Dzeko and have landed on Scamacca as a good option.

There have also been links with fellow Italian giants AC Milan and Juventus, with the Roma-born ace seemingly keen to go back to his home country.

West Ham scouts head back to Italy as Scamacca draws attention

Should Scamacca leave West Ham, then Moyes will need to capture a replacement. He does have Danny Ings and Antonio in his squad already, but both of those players are known to struggle with injuries.

Instead, there is the potential for the east London side to raid Spezia for Angola international M’Bala Nzola.

According to CalcioSpezia, West Ham have begun plotting a summer move for Nzola amid his impressive form in Italy. He has notched 14 goals and three assists in 25 games so far.

Nzola’s Spezia contract expires in June 2024 and club chiefs at the Stadio Alberto Picco are therefore working hard to tie him down to fresh terms. The report claims Spezia are willing to make the attacker their best-paid player, such is his importance to the team.

However, Spezia will not be able to match the wages that West Ham could offer Nzola. And to make matters worse for the Serie A club, West Ham are preparing to bid for him.

It is suggested that West Ham will put around €20m (£17.5m) on the table for Nzola. This should be enough to get Spezia to sign off on his departure.

While this is a decent amount of money, it is not enough to put big pressure on the 26-year-old’s shoulders. Therefore, he would be able to play with a bit more freedom than Scamacca in a West Ham shirt.

In another piece of good news for the Irons, they have ‘excellent relations’ with Nzola’s agent, as he also represents current defender Angelo Ogbonna. This should help the transfer to reach completion.

CalcioSpezia state that Nzola has the necessary attributes to shine in the Premier League. Although, a move will probably only happen if Scamacca departs for one of Inter, Milan or Juve.

Meanwhile, a West Ham ace has been told he is ‘still not doing enough’ to warrant a big-money transfer.