West Ham have confirmed that Alessandro Diamanti has been sold to Brescia for ?2.2m. There`s also a chance for a further payment of ?300,000 if he helps to keep them in Serie A.
It`s not a big surprise. The rumour early on was the unpredictable Italian didn`t have many fans in the new boardroom. In any case, it`s said that he wanted to head back to his homeland.
If you want evidence of how one player can divide opinion amongst fans you just need to go and read the Alessandro Diamanti thread on the Kumb website. There`s pages just trying to figure out what position to play him in.
Personally I`ll miss him. The chance to bring him off the bench and produce a glorious pass or a rip roaring shot is our loss. Of course, it`s probably more likely that he`d miss his target, whether a teammate or the goal. But as frustrating as he can be I always found him entertaining to watch.
I guess the problem with having the mentality that believes anything is possible is it doesn`t lend itself easily to just playing the simple ball. We`d see three West Ham players in the box expecting a cross for Alessandro to prefer to try and hit the top corner of the goal from 25-yards. At other times he`d have his back to the goal and manage to swivel and hit in one motion a stunning cross-field ball to a player running up the opposite flank.
I believe he had the passion and skill to be a success at West Ham if only he could make the right decisions with the ball at his feet. It was never a question of more time to settle into the English game but more the need for a slight shift in mentality.
One of the reasons given by the official site for his sale is the new squad rule. Could we afford to give him one of non-homegrown spots? On balance, probably not. At the moment we need as many consistent performers as we can get and although his unpredictably was fun to watch it might prove too costly.
The big question is can we fill his spot with another creative player?
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