Delight as Scamacca signing ends West Ham’s 1,000 day striker quest

After more than 1,000 days since we last signed a striker, the wait is finally over.

In true West Ham style, the announcement of Gianluca Scamacca’s arrival didn’t quite go to plan on Twitter but who cares, we’ve got a new man to play up top.

Some would argue he’s actually our only true striker in the squad with Antonio still considered a winger who has temportialy been playing in a central role.

Out of interest, can you remember the last striker we signed? Albian Ajeti, now plying his trade north of the Border for Celtic.

The fee for our new man? Northwards of £30m, making him our third most expensive signing after Sebastien Haller and Felipe Anderson.

Marquee

This is a marquee signing, no doubt about it. He would have been sold a vision for how he can help fire us to European glory or into the Champions League.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how Moyes handles him and Antonio. Who is going to be his main man up top?

Does Antonio get the nod from the start of the season with Scamacca coming off the bench as he gets used to the pace and physicality of the Premier League?

Will he get to show what he can do in our cup competitions and potentially lead the line in our Europa Conference campaign, should we win our qualifier?

Is the plan to eventually have Scamacca as our main man with Antonio moved out wide?

In many ways, our striker search ending has prompted more questions for me than answers.

Starter

I can’t see Scamacca being happy signing for us to spend the first season sat on the bench with a couple of starts in the FA and League Cup.

So does he have what it takes to play in our system? After Haller, who I feel was probably the best striker we’d had for a number of years but just didn’t fit into our system and way of playing, I really hope Moyes has picked a man who will be a square peg for our square hole.

At 23 years old, Scamacca, who scored eight goals in 26 appearances for Genoa last campaign, certainly still has his best days ahead of him but after such a long wait, he really does need to hit the ground running.

I’m not sure he’ll be offered the same amount of time to adjust as Bowen and Benrahma were after coming up from the Championship.

He’s ended one quest, but could he also soon end another and become our first 20-goal season striker since John Hartson two decades ago?

I’m excited to see what the Rome born striker can do in Claret and Blue.