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da betway： According to TuttomercatoWeb, West Ham are interested in taking former Southampton striker Graziano Pelle back to the Premier League to reinforce their attacking options up top.
What’s the word, then?
The Italian international has been playing in the Chinese Super League with Shandong Luneng since 2016 after leaving the Saints. After two sub-par seasons with the club, in which he hit five and seven goals in his first and second campaign respectively, the 33-year-old has hit top form once again with 16 goals in 26 games in his latest season in China.
Pelle scored 30 goals in 81 games for Southampton in just two seasons with the South Coast club and was a huge hit with the St Mary’s faithful, so he wouldn’t need much time to adapt to the Premier League if he were to return to England with the Hammers.
Additionally, if he were to end up in east London, it would surely spell the end of another striker’s career at West Ham in Andy Carroll.
Why would his future be in doubt?
The England international made just seven starts in the league last season, scoring three goals as he spent another year battling injury problems. This season, he is yet to start and has appeared off the bench just three times as Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic are preferred to the former Liverpool striker upfront.
Also, the 29-year-old’s contract is up in the summer and Manuel Pellegrini doesn’t look interested in extending that deal any further, even more so given the fact he is looking for striking reinforcements such as Pelle.
The 6′ 4″ Italian is a similar size and build to the 6′ 3″ Carroll, which further emphasises the fact that the Irons are looking to directly replace the lanky striker with a more reliable option who possesses the same sort of attributes as their injury-stricken forward.