Italian football expert and BT Sport pundit James Horncastle believes West Ham United have signed a player with the potential to succeed in the Barclays Premier League in Angelo Ogbonna…
Angelo Ogbonna was a player of great potential when he was coming through – he was getting called up to be a part of the Italy squad even when Torino were in the second division. That’s how highly thought of he was, and Juventus paid a lot of money for him, close to €15m, in 2013.
There has been some reaction that West Ham are buying a Juventus reserve, but that defensive unit was one of the best in Europe. It has won four league titles in a row, did the double this year and could have had the treble with the Champions League and he played a part in that success.
I think he’s well suited to be playing for a team who will be competing for a place in the Europa League and he has the skillset and physicality to be a success in England.
He is 6’3, and even though he didn’t play as regularly as he wanted at Juventus, the experience has still been a positive one for him as he got to play with other great defenders, under great coaches and he’s got to know what it’s like to win things. I think that’s important.
Also, tactically, the last couple of years have been really crucial to him too because he’s had to adapt to playing in a back three, he’s also had to play in a back four this year, so that gives Slaven Bilic options.
He’s adaptable, so that works in his favour to do well at West Ham and in the Premier League.
I think Bilic could bring the aggressive side out of Ogbonna. To be fair to him, at Juventus he was caught between two stools as to what to be – the hard typical Italian defender like Chiellini or is the defender who brings the ball out like Bonucci.
It will be interesting to see the work that Bilic can do with him, to settle on one type of his game, and there’s a lot of potential to be developed in Ogbonna.
Even when he hasn’t been starting regularly for Juventus, his former coach there Antonio Conte has been calling him into the squad for Italy. So, West Ham have a centre back who, should he play every Saturday, will have the opportunity to play his best football.
He is the second player to join West Ham this summer after Pedro Obiang and I think there’s an element in that of just how rich Premier League clubs are with the TV money coming in.
Serie A, aside from the likes of Juventus, Roma, Napoli and the Milan clubs, needs the money and can’t really afford to refuse the kind of money put on the table by Premier League clubs.
Obiang is a really good signing and he has the physique and stamina to be a success in the Premier League. You look at some of the young players who have come through at Samp and gone on to bigger and better things – Mauro Icardi, the top scorer in Serie A last season, for example – so I think he’s a top signing and is Premier League ready.
Follow James on Twitter @jameshorncastle
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United