Chelsea’s striker woes this season are well-documented. Alvaro Morata’s confidence appears completely shot, while Maurizio Sarri doesn’t seem to have faith in Olivier Giroud to lead the line.
And so the news that Chelsea are preparing a bid for a player who has scored 11 goals in 17 games this season doesn’t come as a huge surprise.
Hirving Lozano lit up the 2018 World Cup early stages for Mexico, with some staggering goals and performances, and he’s kept up that form this campaign for his club, PSV, in the Dutch league.
Nominally a winger, the 23-year-old is just as comfortable playing down the centre of the front-line, and would be perfectly suited to Sarri’s system at Chelsea.
Alongside his goals, Lozano contributes significantly in other areas, having provided teammates with six assists so far this season. This all-round game is something Sarri looks for in his attackers, and may go some way to explaining his doubts over his current options.
The reported £36 million offer Chelsea are preparing may not quite be enough to secure the Mexican’s signature from PSV – while there were reports early this year that a figure around that mark would be enough, that was before his star-turn in the World Cup, in which his stock rose significantly.
Having joined PSV for £20million, you would expect that the Dutch club would want to at least double their money on a young, in-form player who is one of world football’s hot properties.
Either way, if an offer is tabled, it will get the ball rolling, and Lozano arriving in West London would surely then just be a matter of time, and a case of a mutually acceptable figure being found.
