OPINION
West Ham are surely cutting their nose off to spite their face by being concerned about the injury record and potential cost of Bournemouth attacker Callum Wilson.
The Sun previously reported that the Hammers were plotting a £35million bid for the Bournemouth forward but the Evening Standard claimed a move for Wilson was unlikely due to his £60million price tag.
However reliable source ExWHUemployee has reported that there is some truth to the Hammers being in pursuit of Wilson but the club are concerned about his injury record as well as his price tag, however, ExWHUemployee claim the player’s price tag is in the region of £45million.
Yep, I’ve previously mentioned that there is truth, however there are concerns around the fees (around £45m) and his injury record https://t.co/FbfRjvZ1WE
— ExWHUEmployee (@ExWHUEmployee) June 23, 2019
“Yep, I’ve previously mentioned that there is truth, however there are concerns around the fees (around £45m) and his injury record,” wrote the source on Twitter.
However surely the Hammers are denying themselves the services of a top-quality striker like Wilson as £45million is a reasonable amount to pay in the current climate, and his injury record isn’t as scary as some perceive.
The 27-year-old forward only has three injuries listed on his Transfermarkt profile, so it’s not like his issues are anywhere near as bad as exit-bound Hammers forward Andy Carroll who remarkably has two pages worth of injuries on his page.
While it’s true Wilson missed a large part of his 2016/17 seasons, he missed 25 matches, and a notable chunk of his 2015/16 campaign, he missed 30 games, due to two serious knee injuries; he’s been regularly featuring for a while and managing to stay injury free.
The forward started 76% of Bournemouth’s league games in his latest campaign (Source: Transfermarkt), and made 33 appearances across all competitions for them.
Wilson’s appearance record in his 2017/18 campaign is also not too shabby as after returning from the knee injury that affected him in the campaign before, he missed only one league match for Eddie Howe’s side.
So that hardly screams injury-prone or gives the Hammers a reason to be put off.
As for his price tag, considering how he could boost the Hammers’ goalscoring threat; it should be seen as a worthwhile investment.
Wilson scored 15 goals, and registered 10 assists, in his 33 outings for Bournemouth in his latest season and averaged 0.47 goals per match (Source: Premier League) in the league which is impressive.
This is especially the case when you consider the Hammer’s top scorer Marko Arnautovic averaged a notably lower 0.36 goals per match.
With all this in mind, it seems the Hammers are finding reasons to put themselves off a move for Wilson when in reality they shouldn’t be doing that as he could be an asset for them.
