[ad_pod ]

This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...

West Ham United explored the feasibility of a deal to sign Danny Welbeck on a free transfer this summer, per ClaretandHugh.

What’s the word?

The club were faced with a shortage of strikers at one point in the transfer window, with Marko Arnautovic’s departure leaving the club with just Javier Hernandez and Jordan Hugill to call upon.

The signing of Sebastian Haller from Eintracht Frankfurt has eased those worries but ClaretandHugh claims the club were interested in a deal for Welbeck, who was released by the Gunners at the end of the 2018/19 season.

However, personal terms that would have seen him earn over £100,000-per-week put paid to the idea.

The former Manchester United forward made just 14 appearances for Arsenal last season, scoring five goals.

Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

A terrible mistake dodged

West Ham have dodged a major bullet here.

The 42-cap England international is an injury-prone forward who was clearly on remarkable wages at the Gunners if his demands are anything to go by.

The fact is, his scoring record at club level is atrocious. For Arsenal, he scored 32 goals in 126 outings at a rate of 0.2-goals-per-game, while at United he netted 29 times in 142 outings at a rate of, again, 0.2-goals-per-game.

Add into that the fact that the Hammers simply don’t know what type of player will have turned up – his repeated ankle injuries may well have robbed him of the pace that he used to have – if they’d signed him, and it was clearly a gamble too far.

Common sense has prevailed but this could have been a truly horrific mistake from the Irons.