West Ham Transfer Rumours: Is Arnautovic angling for exit?

Transfer rumours bring good and bad, and as we close in on January it will only get worse. But what could be worse than Arnautovic leaving West Ham?

Without Arnautovic I would hate to think how West Ham would have fared over the last 12 months. He’s spearheaded our attack and dragged the team from relegation fodder to midtable obscurity. But now, according to quotes from his brother and agent, he wants to move to a club where he can have success.

On the face of it the request makes sense. Here is a player who is firing a side to a position much better than they have deserved, and receiving plaudits from top managers across the league, so why wouldn’t he want to move up? If you can get a starting berth in a top club challenging for cups, both domestically and on the continent, that’s what you’re after no?

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Firstly we have to check whether the statements are truthful or not. The source is Arnautovic’s brother/agent, who according to ExWhuEmployee is best described as a pest. Given that this didn’t come straight from the player you have to take the comments with a pinch of salt. And the fact the comments came from an agent makes them mean even less. This is straight out of the agent basic playbook when it comes to searching for a new contract.

If a big club were to come in and get the Austrian he would cost. A lot. Someone who is scoring as regularly as he is will likely cost upwards of 40m, and there aren’t too many clubs who will pay that kind of fee. Especially when the player in question has a history of behavioural issues and hasn’t particularly hit heady heights at previous clubs. At Stoke he was heralded as a great player that was too inconsistent to ever realise it and he fell out with Mourinho at Inter Milan, so his track record isn’t great.

And then who would want him purely on football terms? Liverpool don’t need a striker, nor do Arsenal or City. United have more crazy expensive players than they can fit in a side and Mourinho won’t want another big personality who could lose it in the dressing room. Chelsea is a potential destination, but will they spend big with Morata and Giroud in the squad at the moment?

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I don’t think he will leave in January, and this is likely to be in reaction to the large wages that were on offer to unfit and out of contract Samir Nasri. He knows that he is the key man in the side and wants recognition. And the board will likely have to give him a reasonably long term contract in order to soothe that annoyance.