Upton Park conduct odd bit of business.
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West Ham have sold Alessandro Diamanti to Brescia for 2.2m euros (£1.8m).
The 27-year-old forward cost the Upton Park club £6m when they signed him from Livorno in August 2009.
He scored eight goals in 29 games for the Hammers in the 2009-2010 season but has played only 17 minutes of Avram Grant’s first two games as manager.
West Ham said in a statement that the sale of Diamanti would “release space in the squad for another player to be brought in”.
Brescia won the last promotion spot to Serie A after winning a play-off against Torino at the end of last season.
Should they do enough this season to remain in Italy’s top flight for another term, another 300,000 euros (£245,000) will be payable to West Ham.The Hammers added: “Diamanti faced stiff competition for a first-team place with the arrivals of Pablo Barrera, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Frederic Piquionne.”
The club concluded its media release by revealing it “could unveil more exciting new faces before the transfer window shuts [on 31 August]“. (BBC Sport)
This is a bit weird. One would have thought after a relatively successful season in the Premier League that Diamanti’s valuation would in fact have increased, not reduced to less than a third of what the east London side allowed him to leave for.
For any 27 year old half decent top tier player to leave for a fee less than £2m is frankly bizarre. The former Livorno player scored seven Premier League goals from 18 starts and perhaps most tellingly he netted against the big boys including two against Arsenal, and others against Chelsea and Liverpool. He showed glimpses of real ability but perhaps was not consistent enough to warrant a regular spot but surely selling him for such a nominal fee is counter productive?
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