OPINION
West Ham are surely wasting their time pursuing Colombian attacker Duvan Zapata based on the remarks of Kevin Hatchard.
The Sun reported on Friday that the 28-year-old forward was now Manuel Pellegrini’s No.1 target and as a result, the Hammers will now turn their attention to trying to sign Zapata in a deal worth £40million.
West Ham’s pursuit of Zapata was discussed on Hawksbee and Jacobs’ talkSPORT show on Friday and the broadcasting duo asked European football expert Hatchard for his thoughts on the story.
Hatchard, who has been heard on talkSPORT and Bundesliga’ English radio station, shared he’d be surprised if the Hammers signed Zapata as a deal for him would be complicated.
The European football expert explained that Zapata is currently midway through a two-year loan spell with Atalanta and that the Italian club have an option to buy him.
“Really good player, he came to prominence last season because he scored lots of goals for Atalanta last season to help them qualify for the Champions League,” said Hatchard on talkSPORT (14:49, July 12).
“He had a wonderful season under Gian Piero Gasperini, and he was on loan at Atalanta from Sampdoria and still is.
“The thing is that will make this complicated is that he is in the middle of two-year-loan with Atalanta having an option to buy, which I think they will take up, so you have to break that deal up.
“I can’t imagine Atalanta would take that lying down, so that would be a surprise.”
The fact Hatchard clearly explained while a deal would be difficult for the Hammers to achieve as well as claimed he’d be surprised, surely the Hammers are wasting valuable time trying to get him signed?
It makes total sense that Atalanta wouldn’t want to abandon their agreed deal with Sampdoria regarding the Colombian forward as he was their top goalscorer with 28 goals in the 2018/19 season (Source: BBC).
Zapata averaged a goal every 126 minutes which was dramatically better than any other Atalanta player in their latest season. (Source: BBC)
So while the forward sounds like he’d be an ideal signing, with the transfer window closing on August 8th and the Hammers surely wanting to get a new forward through the doors as soon as possible to give them a chance of settling in, they should give up their pursuit of Zapata.
