The Hammers are this morning reported to be close to concluding a deal for Genoa’s Armando Izzo according to Tuttomercatoweb,
Indeed, the report claims that Hammers representatives are currently in Italy with Italian newspaper Secolo XIX claiming a fee in the region of £12 million will be sufficient for the club to get him.
If true, it means that Pellegrini has made up his mind that a second central defender is a big requirement to partner his top signing so far Issa Diop.
Izzo, 26, made 16 starts for Genoa last term and is the type of player who can build from the back, a requirement of most Pellegrini defenders.
The previous 2 seasons he played 29 and 33 games respectively so you can only assume that he was injured partly for last season (16 league games, 1 cup match, 1 goal). His youtube video shows him as a strong tackler and goal scorer but then again, every player’s youtube clips look good.
Came up through the Napoli academy and has been at Genoa for the previous 4 years also signed a new 4yr contract just before xmas.
Read in to that what you will but my gut instinct tells me he is a bang average defender so maybe Husillos (who it seems has made the approach for him) & Pellegrini want to bring him in as cover now that Ginge has departed???
Do not watch much serie A. anymore.But as mentioned above begs the question why he only played 16 games last season?.
Played a lot of games for them then, unless he was injured?