West Ham flop would be perfect for Premier League – if he hadn’t fallen flat at Hammers

Gianluca Scamacca’s revival in Serie A would be catching the eye of Premier League clubs – if they could forget his spell at West Ham.

That is the opinion of European football expert Andy Brassell, who believes there is a shortage of centre-forwards of the Italian’s level.

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Much was expected of the 22-cap Italy international upon his arrival at the London Stadium from Sassuolo for £35.5million in 2022.

However, Scamacca scored just eight goals in 27 appearances during his one and only season at the Hammers.

Only three of those strikes came in the Premier League, while injury meant he missed out on the club’s Conference League final triumph.

West Ham took a big hit to allow Scamacca to return to his homeland with Atalanta in 2023, where the striker has since returned to form.

The 27-year-old already has nine goals and three assists across all competitions this season, with two-thirds of his goals via Serie A.

Scamacca also struck in Atalanta’s Champions League win over Chelsea in December, which normally would have put many on notice.

Yet European football expert Brassell believes his stint at West Ham will diminish his chances of securing a big-money return to England.

“Atalanta have looked much improved under [coach Raffaele] Palladino recently,” Brassell told the Trans Europe Express podcast. “Of course, they beat Chelsea towards the end of the knockout stage to get themselves in this position.”

“They’ve got what is kind of a rare commodity in European football at the moment; an old-fashioned centre-forward who really looks the part,” Brassell continued.

“You know what? If he hadn’t failed at West Ham already, people would be looking at Gianluca Scamacca and the way he’s played over the last couple of months and thinking, ‘Yeah, some Premier League club is going to pick him up.’”

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West Ham’s striker issues

Scamacca is far from the first struggling West Ham striker to have reversed his fortunes since leaving the club.

Sebastian Haller became the Champions League’s top scorer despite managing just 10 goals in 48 Premier League games for the Irons.

Similarly, Niklas Fulkrug joined West Ham as a European finalist with Borussia Dortmund, but netted only three goals in 27 appearances.

His replacement, Pablo Felipe, a January signing, is now out injured, having not scored a Premier League goal in his five games in London.

On Scamacca, Brassell told talkSPORT.com: “I think people would judge him less harshly if he hadn’t picked up that ACL injury relatively soon after going to Atalanta because that made him sort of leave West Ham and then sort of fade from view.

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“But the way he’s played since he’s come back the way he’s played in the first half of this season he’s been really good. He’s looked dangerous.

“Everything he does in the game in terms of fighting defenders in terms of holding the ball up I look at him and I’m like if you didn’t know he’d been at West Ham and you just didn’t know who he was; if he was just some random player you’d think yeah this guy would do a great job in the Premier League if you had no idea of the history at all.

“With Scamacca, it’s not just about the fact that he can score goals consistently, and he’s scored a reasonable lick so far this season.

“It’s everything else he does in the game. He makes his teammates’ lives a hell of a lot easier, and there are so few centre-forwards in the game of this sort of level at the moment.

“So if it wasn’t for his age and injury history and the fact that he’d fallen at least partly flat on his face in the Premier League, people would be looking at him in an entirely different way.

“He’s a problem.”