Slaven Bilic has denied that West Ham United are planning to send Simone Zaza back to Juventus in January following the on-loan striker’s underwhelming start to life in England.
Zaza has failed to score in his first five appearances for West Ham – four in the Premier League – and was on the bench for the 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough two weeks ago. The east London club will have to pay Juventus £20m to sign the Italian permanently if he reaches 14 Premier League appearances.
“This one is false,” Bilic said of suggestions Zaza’s loan may be cut short. “He’s our player, we got him, he’s here. He’s training good and we expect him to do the job.”
Bilic said he was not concerned about the details of Zaza’s contract and was thinking only about whether to start him at Crystal Palace on Saturday evening. West Ham travel to Selhurst Park in the bottom three, having won one of their first seven matches.
“I have to make a decision on Zaza over Saturday,” he said. “That is the only decision I am thinking about: the game against Palace. The only thing I am thinking about Saturday is not about the situation in his contract or around his contract but is he going to be the one I will put at centre-forward? The only objective is can he do it against Palace?”
None of West Ham’s forwards have scored this season. Jonathan Calleri has started slowly since joining on loan, Ashley Fletcher has been restricted to cameo appearances, and André Ayew, Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho have encountered injury problems.
However, Bilic, who has Aaron Cresswell available again after the left-back recovered from a knee injury, is hopeful that Ayew, Carroll and Sakho will be ready to train with the first team soon.
“André is supposed to start training with us on Monday but not from the massage room,” West Ham’s manager said. “He is already doing ball work, sprints and everything. Training individually is one thing, training with the guys is another thing. And then games are totally different. There are three steps. They are not in the treatment room, they are on the pitch. Then they have to train with us. Then after training with us, they need match practice because their injuries were long term. But they are going to be back soon.”
Bilic said that Sakho, who failed a medical at West Bromwich Albion in the summer, was part of his plans. The Senegalese forward has been working on his fitness after a disrupted pre-season.
“He’s improving, he’s running, he’s sprinting, he’s doing the ball work,” Bilic said. “He’s almost there but not for Saturday, not for next Saturday, but he’s back on the pitch. He was working on specific things in the gym and now he’s back on the pitch sprinting, doing ball work and all that. Touch wood if he continues like that he will be back very soon.
“When his move to West Brom didn’t happen I said of course he is our player, he’s under contract and he’s a player I like.”
