Thoughts on Marko Arnautovic and his poorly timed contract extension
By Adam Smith
Moments after the final whistle of a half-hearted (and that’s generous) effort away at AFC Wimbledon that saw the Hammers lose 4-2 to the relegation-bound League Two side, West Ham’s social media accounts blasted out a video coinciding with an announcement that Marko Arnautovic has signed a contract extension. Chaos ensued. Here are my thoughts.
Presumably, West Ham’s social media accounts were prepared and loaded with Arnautovic’s announcement and video to the fans to release at the final whistle of the match. The idea was obvious – West Ham fans could keep the celebration going from their inevitable win over Wimbledon with the news of Marko extending his deal by a year.
Two important pieces of information were glossed over in this – West Ham lost to Wimbledon, and the fans are largely fed up with the Arnautovic saga.
Two fairly important things, no? In a game where two misfiring strikers performed extremely underwhelmingly West Ham could have used the uniquely physical play style of Arnautovic but alas he was busy negotiating a new deal.
Now understand it is a one year contract extension for Marko Arnautovic at #WHUFC
— Sam Inkersole (@Sam_InkersoleTM) January 26, 2019
The deal itself is supposedly just an augmented version of his existing deal with more performance-based incentives and presumably a large signing on bonus.
This is also the same board that nickel-and-dimed their top academy prospect maybe ever because THEY previously got burned on rewarding a different youth player with a contract. Rice has been integral in West Ham’s last two seasons and had to wait and wait and wait for his deal, which is a fraction of Arnautovic’s, but Arnie can throw a fit and get an increase. Madness.
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As mentioned, Arnautovic appeared in a video from West Ham’s social media accounts stating he’s back and motivated to play for West Ham. Back from where exactly, Marko? From the fit you threw when your team wanted to commit to you? From the strike you took against a team you willingly signed a contract to play for?
It makes no sense to me, and to be honest, it’s insulting to the supporters of this club. The club and the player both know exactly how invested West Ham supporters are to their club – it’s their world (mine included), so to underestimate the involvement the supporters have had over social media in this whole ordeal is insulting.
Marko knows this too, as he posted to his Instagram story, “First find out the truth, then judge. Ok, so enough said let’s play.” The truth he told the fans in his video is that unless it’s from the club or him, don’t believe it. Does that include your brother/agent then, mate? The one who, on your behalf, told us that you were off to China to win trophies?
It’s all too easy to connect the dots on this puzzle.
Apparently, a lot changed on the Arnautovic saga today, as West Ham have made tremendous strides to sign Maxi Gomez from Celta Viga now and loan him back to his club immediately. This would allow Arnautovic to stay and earn his move to China, then finance it by sealing the deal in the summer.
This would be incredible business for West Ham, seeing them replace Arnautovic with a 22-year-old goal machine who would join the club in the summer as the team revamp continues.
To be honest, I think that West Ham securing Gomez now would be the only thing they could do to keep their manager, Manuel Pellegrini, happy. He walked out of a post-match interview after questions about Arnautovic’s new deal overshadowed the abysmal on-pitch performance.
West Ham get embarrassed and bounced from FA Cup by AFC Wimbledon. dark. Next
The future of this club is not in the hands of a 29-year old striker who is only loyal to his money. Securing the future West Ham supporters were promised when they moved from their ancestral home at Upton Park is solely in the hands of Manuel Pellegrini. The only way this news about Arnautovic is palatable is if Gomez is secured. And to be specific, the news would just be palatable, as it’s still ill-timed and moronic.