Bilic: ‘Bacca was waiting for Arsenal’

By Football Italia staff

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic admits interest in Carlos Bacca but the Milan striker was “waiting for Arsenal or Atletico Madrid”.

The Hammers were consistently linked with the Colombian international this summer, but eventually signed Simone Zaza from Juventus to bolster their frontline.

“In this transfer window we tried to raise the bar by signing players who would have been unthinkable for our club just a few years ago,” Bilic acknowledged, speaking to MilanNews.

“But as we’ve shown with the new stadium and training ground, we have the ambition to grow as a club. For certain champions it was not ‘normal’ for them to be on our shortlist even two or three years ago.

“On our list were [Alexandre] Lacazette, Zaza, Bacca and [Michy] Batshuayi, but I knew it would be difficult to buy them.

“We wanted Zaza in September of last year, but Juventus had no intention of selling him, then we turned our attention to Lacazette and then Bacca, but we weren’t the Colombian’s first choice.

“He was waiting for Arsenal or Atletico Madrid and then ultimately decided to stay at Milan, but we’re very happy because we got Zaza, who was our first choice a year ago.”

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