Why West Ham should wait until summer to sign Andrea Belotti

According to a report from Cuoretoro, West Ham were interested in signing Torino hitman Andrea Belotti earlier in the January transfer window and were willing to offer a club-record £44million for his signature.

But the Calciomercato claims Torino’s sporting director Gianluca Petrachi confirmed before the match against Inter Milan that the club had received an offer for the Italian striker but that they turned it down. The report also adds that West Ham could have made such an offer for Andrea Belotti.

It’s quite understandable why West Ham were so much interested in signing Andrea Belotti in the January transfer window. Marko Arnautovic signed a contract extension with the Hammers. The Austrian is West Ham’s joint top-scorer with eight goals but despite agreeing to a year-long extension until 2023, doubts remain on whether he’ll stay at West Ham beyond the summer or not.

Come summer, when the Hammers could look for Arnautovic’s replacement, the club have to watch out for the same kind of player, a like-to-like replacement if possible. Andrea Belotti may not be a like-to-like Arnautovic replacement but would give the east Londoners an entirely different dimension going forward.

A couple of years back, Belotti was considered as one of the best strikers in Europe. He rose to the spotlight in the 2016/17 season when he scored 26 times for Torino while bagging seven assists. However, the Italian’s form has faded over the last two seasons and is struggling to hit top gear in the ongoing 2018/19 campaign.

There are no doubts about Belotti’s talent and ability to win games single-handedly on his day. His versatility of playing as the lone striker, as a second striker and even in the No.10 role would give West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini a lot of flexibility in the attack.

Impressively, the 25-year-old is extremely dangerous in the final third of the opposition and his ability to run in behind the opposition’s defence would provide Pellegrini with a totally different option up front.

The AlbinoLeffe youth product is a natural goalscorer, possessing good technical traits and aerial ability. Belotti’s pace, dribbling skills, movement, work rate and eye for goal would make him such a brilliant fit for the Hammers. He would certainly thrive in Pellegrini’s attacking system which has the creative brains of Samir Nasri and Felipe Anderson around him.

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For now, West Ham should continue tracking Belotti’s progress in the Serie A. If he excels between now and until the end of the campaign, the Hammers should not hesitate to throw big money to bring the Italian to the London stadium.