West Brom manager Sam Allardyce has openly discussed the prospect of signing Bournemouth forward Joshua King, as reported by Sky Sports.
Allardyce took over at the Hawthorns last month but so far his spell has proved to be pretty disastrous.
West Brom have picked up just one point from four games in the Premier League, while conceding a whopping 13 goals, and on Saturday were eliminated from the FA Cup by League One's Blackpool.
However, Allardyce's plan for Premier League survival was always going to centre around bringing in reinforcements during the January transfer window and the prospect of him signing a new star striker for the Baggies has been mentioned frequently in recent weeks.
The need for one has only amplified since Karlan Grant's foot injury, and after Saturday's FA Cup loss, Allardyce directly discussed a potential move for Bournemouth striker King - who had previously been linked with a mid-season switch to the Hawthorns.
The Baggies boss played his cards close to his chest, but said there was a possibility of West Brom moving for the 51-cap Norway international provided he's available at the right price.
"No idea what the price may be [for King] - if the price is within our range then I think we would be interested, and if it's out of our price range then we won't."
With King's contract due to expire in the summer, one would expect him to be available on the cheap. However, Bournemouth are said to have turned down £13m for him in the summer.
GIVEMESPORT's Christy Malyan says...
There won't be too many strikers available to Allardyce in January who already have 48 Premier League goals under their belt and could be available at a knock-down rate - due to his contract situation, Transfermarkt value King at just £9.9m.
But it's important to remember how much is riding on the line here. Whoever leads West Brom's attack in the second half of the season will have a massive impact on their survival hopes, and based on Allardyce's comments it's not as if the Baggies have money to simply throw around on a variety of options.
In short, they need to bring the perfect striker in and while King's track record in the Premier League initially looks decent enough, it actually flatters to deceive a little.
Only during two top flight campaigns to date has the former Manchester United youngster managed to hit double figures, and during the second of those, five of his twelve goals were from the penalty spot.
Perhaps more importantly, he just doesn't fit the profile of a typical Allardyce striker.
Although he showed some variation at Sunderland when he relied on Jermain Defoe's proficiency to keep the Black Cats up, Big Sam's teams usually have a powerful target man leading the line - Kevin Davies, Christian Benteke and Andy Carroll are the more obvious examples.
King's hold-up play is by no means the worst - in fact, probably his best quality is his ability to link things together around the box - but he's not a natural Allardyce fit either.
While King's a Premier League quality player, while West Brom could certainly do with a few more of those, and while he probably can be prized from the Vitality Stadium at a discount this month, whether he's the signing to fire the Baggies to safety is a different matter entirely.
Recent history suggests the Midlands side would be better off looking elsewhere.