West Bromwich Albion are interested in a deal to bring Vedat Muriqi to The Hawthorns in the January transfer window.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by Italian publication Corriere della Sera (via Sport Witness), who claim that Valerien Ismael's side are not relenting in their interest to secure a deal for the Lazio centre-forward in the current transfer market, despite the fact the club secured the £7m signing of Daryl Dike earlier this month.

The report goes on to state that CSKA Moscow are also keeping a close eye on the situation of the 27-year-old, while the Serie A side are thought to be willing to sanction the departure of the Kosovo international on a temporary basis - as long as the deal includes an obligation to buy clause.

"Absolute donkey"

While it is true that Muriqi did return impressive numbers during his time in Turkey - scoring 17 goals over 36 appearances for Fenerbahce, bagging 25 goals over 52 outings for Caykur Rizespor and netting 23 times in 69 fixtures for Giresunspor - following his £17.93m move to Lazio back in the summer of 2020, the centre-forward has been a particularly big flop for the Italian side.

Indeed, over his 27 Serie A appearances for I Biancocelesti last season, the £5.4m-rated man scored just one goal, registered no assists and missed four big chances for his side, as well as hitting the target with an average of a mere 0.3 shots per game.

These returns saw the £52k-per-week striker earn an extremely disappointing seasonal SofaScore rating of just 6.69, ranking him as Lazio's 12th-worst performer in the top flight of Italian football.

Things have not improved over the Kosovan's 11 league outings in the current campaign, with Muriqi failing to hit the back or providing a single assist for his teammates, as well as missing two big chances.

These metrics have seen the 27-year-old average an even more disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.52, ranking him as Maurizio Sarri's fourth-worst player in the division this time around.

As such, it is perhaps easy to understand why Vincenzo Morabito suggested that Lazio had been duped into spending so much on the centre-forward, with the Italian football agent stating of Muriqi: "He has this brother who is the Albanian Consul in Istanbul and suddenly [Lazio] pay €18m for a player who is an absolute donkey.

"Simone [Inzaghi] told me, 'I'm pulling my hair out, here.' Stefan Radu tells me he can mark Muriqi with slippers on in training because he's so bad. €18m for Muriqi, and then there are five agents involved with all the commissions. I mean, €18m is a lot of money for Lazio and they get this horrible flop."

Indeed, there would appear to be worrying similarities between the potential signing of the Kosovan this month and the £15m deal to bring Oli Burke to The Hawthorns back in 2017 - with the Scotland international going on to score just one goal over his 24 appearances for the Baggies before being sold for a near-£10m loss to Sheffield United in 2020.

As such, considering Albion have already brought Dike to the club this winter, in addition to the fact that, should the Baggies go on to secure promotion to the top flight this season, Muriqi would not appear to be a striker who is anywhere near the standard required for the English top-flight, Ismael must avoid a move for the Kosovan this month - as his signing could well prove to be a repeat of the Burke disaster.

In other news: Worrying January transfer claim emerges that will have West Brom fans sweating