Everton are reportedly closing in on their first signing of the January transfer window as Arnaut Danjuma is poised to arrive at the club on loan from Villarreal.

The Netherlands international is set to join until the end of the season to provide Frank Lampard's squad with an injection of quality in their fight against relegation in the coming months.

However, Danjuma may not be the final addition of the month for the club as Atalanta centre-forward Duvan Zapata is reported to be of interest to Lampard.

The Serie A side value the Colombian international, who is wanted by multiple English teams, at £25m and journalist Simon Phillips told GIVEMESPORT that it could be a "big risk" to sign the striker.

Farhad Moshiri could now repeat the blunder he made with Salomon Rondon by pursuing a deal to sign Zapata for £25m before the end of the month.

The Toffees swooped to sign the striker on a free transfer in the summer of 2021 to bolster their options at the top end of the pitch, potentially because of his previous record at Premier League level.

He had scored 11 goals and provided seven assists in 32 top-flight appearances for Newcastle in his last season in the division, after also scoring 28 goals for West Brom prior to his spell at St. James' Park, but was unable to replicate that success at Goodison Park.

Before departing the club at the start of this month, the 33-year-old marksman scored an unimpressive three goals in 31 appearances for the Toffees in all competitions - including one strike in 27 Premier League games.

Zapata, whose former teammate Papu Gomez claimed is "like a train", could be a similarly poor signing for Everton as his form this season suggests that he is not the player he once was.

The Colombian centre-forward scored 10 or more goals in each of the past four Serie A seasons for Atalanta, including 15 or more in three of those campaigns, and proved that he could consistently find the back of the net in a major European league - as Rondon did with Newcastle and West Brom.

However, Zapata has only scored once in 12 appearances in the Italian top-flight this term and managed one in his final 12 Serie A matches at the end of the 2021/22 season.

Therefore, the 31-year-old may not arrive as the prolific scorer that he once was in Italy and, instead, could struggle to be a consistent scorer for Lampard in the Premier League, due to his struggles for Atalanta over his last 24 games.

The worrying downward trend in Zapata's scoring suggests that he could end up being Rondon 2.0 for Moshiri if the Everton chief opts to pay £25m to sign the striker this month, which is why the club should reconsider swooping for the attacker.