West Ham are weighing up a move for former Manchester United and Arsenal forward Danny Welbeck, according to reports in the English media.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini is looking to strengthen his attacking options with Sebastien Haller and Javier Hernandez currently his only strikers.

Jordan Hugill is also still at the club but the Hammers are very likely to offload him before deadline day. With that being the case, and with the club not blessed with transfer funds, signing a free agent is the logical solution.

Choosing Welbeck would though be a calculated gamble. West Ham fans have been burned too many times by players with injury problems and supporters should be justifiably concerned by the England international’s poor fitness record in recent years.

The 28-year-old spent the second half of last season on the treatment table with a broken ankle and has spent two long spells out with knee injuries.

During his five years at Arsenal, he managed just 126 appearances. With a weekly wage of £125,000 a week, that works out at £258,000 per match for the Gunners.

If West Ham do go ahead with a move, they have to give him a short term contract as despite not being 30 yet, the Irons cannot afford another situation like Andy Carroll.

If they could agree a one or two year deal for Welbeck, though, what would the club be getting? Over the last two years, Welbeck has averaged 0.41 goals per 90 minutes compared to Haller’s 0.48 and Chicharito’s 0.39, according to Wyscout.

The former Gunner is also the most accurate with 52% of his shots on target compared to Haller and Hernandez (both 47%). His goal conversion is slightly lower (20%) than the two current West Ham forwards, but he has more touches in the box per match (3.77), which is slightly more than Haller (3.67).

One key difference between Welbeck, and what Pellegrini currently has at his disposal, is that he is a keen runner. He makes almost double the number of dribbles (4.11) per 90 minutes than Hernandez (2.65).

The striker is not just decent with the ball at his feet either and has actually averaged more headed goals per 90 minutes (0.14) than Haller (0.07) over the past two seasons.

Statistically then, Welbeck would be a decent capture, but the finances of the deal would have to be right. Giving him £100,000 a week on a four-year contract just wouldn’t make any sense, and it will be interesting to see whether the former Arsenal star would accept a shorter-term deal.