Everton Nearing Loan Deal with West Ham for Enner Valencia

Paul Joyce of the Express may well have just broken Everton Twitter with the following tweet:

Everton close to a loan deal for West Ham’s Enner Valencia with view to permanent £14.5m transfer

— paul joyce (@pjoyceexpress) August 31, 2016

(No really, if you need a laugh today, go check out the comments on that Tweet.)

The Toffees are apparently interested in bringing the Ecuadorian striker to Goodison Park on a loan this year, with an option to make the move permanent for 14.5 million pounds.

Valencia's career at West Ham has been rocky to say the least. In 64 appearances with the club since the start of the 2014-15 season, Valencia has only 10 goals. After playing 37 matches in all competitions in his first season with the Hammers, injury and poor form allowed him to play only 23 matches in all competitions last season.

So far this season, he has appeared in only one of West Ham's three league matches, despite the fact that the Hammers are currently missing Andy Carroll and Dimitri Payet.

Easily the best year of Valencia's career was 2014, in which he scored 10 international goals in 10 appearances for Ecuador and 18 goals in 25 appearances with Pachuca of Mexico's Liga MX. Since putting up 28 goals in those 12 months, he has scored only 15 for club and country in 2015 and 2016.

The Ecuadorian figures to be an upgrade from Arouna Kone, but with the way the last two years have gone for him, it probably wouldn't be a substantial one. Given that the option to buy the player appears to come after this season, this is a relatively low risk move, but one that appears to be low reward as well.