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Nah I disagree. While there's no question he's a big downgrade from Lukaku, Zapata is still significantly better than a lot of people are making him out to be.
If we sign him though, we're blowing a significant chunk of our earnings on someone who: 1) isn't good enough to lead us to the title anyway, and 2) lacks the positives and promise of a younger star in the making like Vlahovic. I'm personally not as big on resale value as others here but clearly Suning have demonstrated they're willing to sell our stars - therefore resale value should be considered in this case. All the more reason we should be priotising Vlahovic as first preference, not Zapata.
Simply put, €80m for Vlahovic is much better than €40m for Zapata. If it's true that Suning has allocated or will allow for up to €60m outlay, then Marotta needs to make one of those favorable deals like juve got with Chiesa.
I don't think anyone claims Zapata is shit. If the club brought him as a backup no one would have complained. But he's probably coming as a starter to replace a player who contributed 24 goals and 10 assists in the league. So either Zapata needs to be a 20+ goals forward for us or Lautaro needs to make a major step up. I have no faith in either happening. I am not that convinced about Vlahovic but at least with him you would get a player who's coming from a great season and is 10 years younger.
Another issue with Zapata is the price tag. When you spend 40m for a 30-year old he needs to be an established top player and Zapata certainly isn't. He failed at Napoli, he was decent at Udinese and Sampdoria and he exploded in Gasperini's system where many mediocre players, who have failed elsewhere, have looked great. And even at Atalanta he has showed a slow, but steady, decline after his first great season.
Zapata Serie A stats
2018/19 23 goals 7 assists
2019/20 18 goals 7 assists
2020/21 15 goals 10 assists
we're not talking about some donkey here. but at that price, at that age and with a dubious injury record (at least last season I believe?) it's a hard no.
He struggled with injuries only in his second season at Atalanta. In his first and third seasons, he was mostly injury free. Before then, we need to go back to 2015/16 to find a season with a serious injury for Zapata. His injury record is the least of our worries.