2024 has not started with the zest that West Ham United manager David Moyes would have hoped for at the London Stadium, having drawn against Brighton & Hove Albion and Sheffield United in the Premier League and crashed out of the FA Cup by the hand of Championship side Bristol City.
The club have reached an agreement with Manchester City for the loan signing (with an option to buy) of Kalvin Phillips, though a bluntness in attack calls for offensive reinforcements.
The transfer entreaties of the Hammers faithful have not yet been answered but injuries to Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta have compounded the situation to a point of priority.
West Ham's search for a forward
Wolverhampton Wanderers have prodded around east London with the hope of signing Danny Ings on loan but the aforementioned injuries make a winter deal very unlikely.
With Michail Antonio also injured and turning 34 in two months, Moyes appears to have turned his attention to the attacking wings, with FC Nordsjaelland winger Ibrahim Osman eyed for £15m and Portuguese star Jota also on the radar.
Jota, who signed for Al-Ittihad from Celtic for £25m last summer, is attracting Irons attention, according to journalist Graeme Bailey, with a host of further Premier League interest emphasising the need for action at London Stadium.
Jota could supercharge Jarrod Bowen
It's not all doom and gloom. West Ham are sixth in the Premier League after 21 matches – four points above Manchester United, five ahead of Chelsea – and topped their Europa League group to advance to the last 16 of the continental competition, looking to add to last year's Conference League triumph.
On a bumper £200k-per-week package in Saudi Arabia, Jota has been limited to sporadic appearances with Ittihad limited to naming eight foreign players in their domestic squad, consequently scoring just two times.
It's a sharp contrast from his exploits in Scotland, where he plundered 28 goals and 26 assists across 83 outings before departing for scorching Saudi, hailed as a "revelation" by ex-Scotland boss Alex McLeish.
Last season, for example, the 24-year-old scored 15 goals and set up 12 more from 43 fixtures under then Hoops manager Ange Postecoglou.
As per Sofascore, he clinched 11 goals and assists apiece in the 2022/23 Scottish Premiership, creating 13 big chances and averaging 1.9 key passes per game.
Given his dynamism and preference on the left wing, Jota could be the perfect player to supplement Bowen when the free-scoring England international is chosen to play up front, having scored 14 times from 27 fixtures this term.
Bowen typically operates in the half-spaces and glides into promising positions with a constancy that denotes his intelligence and movement in the final third, prolific enough to finish off sequences too.
Jota's former mentor Joao Tralhao reckons that his “talent is unlimited", and by making the move to the Premier League to fashion a deadly partnership with Bowen, West Ham could finally unlock the full scope of their attacking ability.