Callum Wilson is very much West Ham United’s third-choice centre-forward these days, following the January signings of Taty Castellanos and Pablo Felipe.
Ironically, the veteran poacher may be third-choice in Nuno Espirito Santo’s pecking order but he remains by far and away the stand-out finisher at the London Stadium.
As stats site Data MB show, Callum Wilson sits in the 69th percentile when it comes to his conversion rate. Taty Castellanos, in contrast, is all the way back in the 28th percentile.
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A graphic highlighting the rumour that Callum Wilson has agreed a new one-year contract at West Ham United.
Credit: Getty Images/Rob Newell – CameraSport
Pablo Felipe hasn’t even scored a Premier League goal since his £18 million transfer from Gil Vicente.
So therein lies the dilemma facing West Ham United’s head coach. Does the work-rate and intensity provided by Castellanos and Pablo offset the lack of ruthlessness a 34-year-old Wilson would bring to the table?
Callum Wilson is still West Ham United’s best finisher
Castellanos has scored twice in 10 Premier League starts, averaging a goal every 411 minutes.
Wilson, in contrast, has five goals in the same number of starts. His goal-per-minute ratio is twice as good; averaging one every 200 minutes.
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Isn’t that typical West Ham? If you could combine the intelligence of Castellanos with the aggression of Pablo and the finishing of Wilson, the London Stadium would be home to one of the most complete centre-forwards in the whole of the country.
Callum Wilson during West Ham United v Sunderland - Premier League
Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images
Instead, they spent £44 million on two largely non-scoring but high-energy January signings. In the meantime, warming the bench is a truly elite chance-converter, albeit one a few years and multiple injuries past his best.
According to The Telegraph, Callum Wilson could sign a new deal at West Ham. Presuming he is happy to remain in his supersub role – Wilson’s last goal was a last-gasp winner off the bench at Tottenham in January – this does feel like something of a no-brainer.
Nuno Espirito Santo will wish Wilson was a few years younger
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A graphic showing the lineup that West Ham United should pick against Aston Villa in the Premier League on 19/03/2026.
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Wilson is not only the best finisher at West Ham, he is also one of the most potent goal threats in the whole league.
Of all the players who have scored five or more in 2025/26, Wilson sits 14th in the goal-per-minute table, behind the likes of Erling Haaland, Benjamin Sesko and Igor Thiago.
Unfortunately for West Ham, there is a limit to how many minutes Wilson can realistically play. The dilemma facing Nuno is whether he keeps using the former Newcastle and Bournemouth frontman as a potential game-changer off the bench, a la Tottenham in mid-January.
Or whether it is instead worth starting Wilson and then taking him off around the 55 minute mark, introducing the sweat-shedding Pablo or Castellanos to defend from the front and hold onto a lead hopefully given to the Hammers by their arch poacher.
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