Simone Zaza - “I was not right mentally”

Unfortunately for Simone Zaza, he’ll always be remembered for THAT penalty at the 2016 European Championships. In a summer filled with so much potential, being linked with household names such as; Lacazette, Bacca and Ibrahimović felt too good to be true. In typical West Ham fashion however, we signed the one player who found himself at the brunt of an internet meme.

Yesterday afternoon the 25-year-old put pen to paper on a six-month loan deal at the Mestalla, Valencia. A few short days after his previous loan spell at West Ham United, terminated. Zaza was quick to apologise for his time spent with the Hammers’ this season and wished he could have adapted better after making 11 goalless appearances for the club.

Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images

"It was a very difficult time for me," Zaza said. "When I joined from Juventus I was very optimistic, I wanted to experience playing in England because I thought it was the football that I liked and where I could use my qualities.

"Everything started badly from the outset, I think the main blame lies with me because I was not right mentally, I was very negative and in all the things that happened I never saw the positive side.

"There was an atmosphere, a culture very different to mine. That was a problem. Now I'm here (in Spain) I feel bad not to have shown in England what I'm capable of."

Zaza joins the struggling Spanish outfit on an initial six-month loan deal; however he does admit he could see his future with Los Che.

"I'm really keen to play here, not only for six months," Zaza added. "I think I can do well here. I like the city, the people, everything. My hope is to play here.

"I would like to score as many goals as possible, but for me the most important thing is starting well, being calm, focused. The key thing is get higher up the table."

In modern day football you don't often find a player who openly admits to being wrong, it's usually the club or the manager who'll take the fall. However, for Zaza to openly admit he could have prepared better for his lacklustre season with The Hammers, may have swayed my opinion on him completely.

Although his time spent with us was short, we definitely wish him all the success at Valencia going forward.