David Sullivan could waste further millions if West Ham United seal a £13.5m swoop for Cadiz CF striker Anthony Lozano to replace Sebastien Haller.

What’s the word?

According to Diario de Cadiz (13/1, p. 50), the Irons are set to imminently offer €15m (£13.5m) for 27-year-old forward Lozano as boss David Moyes is desperate to bolster his attacking options after Haller’s move to AFC Ajax.

Haller’s departure left Michail Antonio as the sole recognised senior striker at the London Stadium, and deprived Moyes of the man responsible for three of the Hammers’ 24 goals in the Premier League so far this season.

Only Tomas Soucek (5) and Jarrod Bowen (4) had scored more often than Haller in the top-flight this term, and would be joined by a forward hardly boasting a prolific record if Lozano is signed with the Honduras international having found the net just three times in La Liga.

Lozano has been a regular for Cadiz since their promotion to the highest level of Spanish domestic football last season, starting nine of his 14 appearances after missing two games through coronavirus in November, but had only scored once prior to the New Year.

Wasting further millions

Sullivan would be taking a massive gamble by backing Lozano to be the forward to offer Moyes what Haller could not, as the 33-cap marksman’s frequent struggles to score in La Liga this season are nothing new.

Lozano hit home just once in 34 La Liga outings for Girona before joining Cadiz in 2019, and is proving immensely wasteful at the Nuevo Estadio Ramon de Carranza with a return of just 0.2 goals a game despite fashioning 1.3 shots per match so far this season, per SofaScore.

He has further missed five clear-cut chances to score over his 14 appearances, and rarely creates opportunities for his teammates, despite penning one assist, as the former Valencia and Barcelona trainee offers a mere 0.3 key balls from his paltry 19.4 passes per game.

Sullivan opting for the £7,500-per-week man would likely only serve to see the West Ham co-owner and Chairman flutter his millions down the drain once again, having lost close to £25m on the sale of Haller having allowed the Irons’ club-record signing to leave for less than half of the fee paid to Eintracht Frankfurt just 18-months earlier.

The fee the Irons are touted to pay for Lozano is additionally far beyond his considered market value, as TransferMarkt tout the attacker to be worth £2.25m less than a year on from considering the 6ft hitman to be worth just £1m.

West Ham’s need for another striker is clear in their lack of depth, but Lozano’s ability to fill the void would be questionable.

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