West Ham need to form Arnautovic replacement plan

West Ham now look set to lose Marko Arnautovic to China as he goes trophy hunting. As questionable as that motive is, the club needs a long term plan for his replacement.

When one of your top players’ go, it’s always a tough decision about how to replace them. We’re not a truly massive side like Barcelona or Juventus, who can appeal to almost anyone to join them and pay the price financially. West Ham have to be savvy about who they can get in, and how much it’s going to cost them.

Everyone knows that the January market is hectic. Clubs don’t want to let players go unless it’s a big pay day and invariably deals are rushed through due to the short timespan. Especially here as the Hammers weren’t in desperate need of going into the market for a striker now really need some quality if Arnie does leave.

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With two weeks left of the transfer window I think we can safely say it’s now going to be frantic. I said at the start of the window we didn’t really need anything. Now we need someone who can play a similar roll to Arnie that won’t cost the Earth. Who’s going to be selling someone like that in January?

Well probably no-one unfortunately. That means the club are going to have to think longer term, and about who they will be able to get in the summer if they give themselves enough time to think. There’s no point blowing over half the money we get for Arnie on someone we’re not sure of and won’t be used much past the summer.

I think the best plan is to aim for a loan move for the next 6 months, and begin shortlisting strikers for the summer. There are usually young strikers looking to prove themselves available in this window, and we should take advantage of that. If they prove themselves, it’s a win for us and we sign them in the summer. If they don’t prove themselves they go back to their parent club and it’s only 6 months for us.

We’re not in a relegation scrap, and we’re not on the edge of league glory. We need to stay the course and make sure our focus is on the next few years, not just the next few games. We will recover after Arnie leaves, and someone disruptive must not be allowed to remain in the dressing room for too long. But we will remain West Ham United, no player is bigger than the club.