West Ham legend Alvin Martin shared that he hoped Marko Arnautovic wouldn’t leave the club after a bid was reportedly made for him.
Head of talkSPORT Lee Clayton reported via his Twitter account on Wednesday that the London club had a received a £35million+ offer from an unnamed Chinese club.
West Ham have received a bid in excess of £35million for Marko Arnautovic. The bid is from a Chinese club. They want to reject it. The wages will be amazing. Hard to keep him. More to follow on @talkSPORTDrive
— Lee Clayton (@LeeClayton_) January 9, 2019
Martin upon being told the news delivered his verdict on the offer and shared that given that Arnautovic is a massive player for the Hammers, he hoped the player wasn’t about to leave.
“I can tell you what I hope will happen and that is that he sees the light and can play Premier League, top league, football with West Ham over the next three or fours years,” said the Hammers legend on talkSPORT (17:22, Wednesday January 9th).
“Look I’m only looking at it from a fans’ point of view at the moment and only just found out about this and I know he is a massive player for us, even just in the last two games as he has three goals in two games and he is the leader in the team Adrian.
“The fee wouldn’t really be anywhere near what West Ham would expect for a player of that quality as he is No.1 so I can’t see him leaving for that figure it’d be a lot more.”
Adrian Durham then asked Martin about whether Arnautovic potentially exiting was similar to how playmaker Dimitri Payet left the Hammers in 2017 and the legend referred to the player to explain the difference.
“If there was a problem being caused on the training pitch like there was previously, y’know I think with Payet I think he reacted in the wrong way and I liked to think Marko Arnautovic is somebody who would react in a different way and he could have some sort of communication with the manager, I’d don’t think he’d allowed that to happen the manager,” continued Martin.
OPINION
Martin is 100% right with his verdict on the potential situation developing around Arnautovic and he is wrong to point out how fans shouldn’t fear that a scenario similar to how Payet left the club in 2017 is about to develop. The playmaker appeared to force his exit from the London club and really turn the mood sour around the Hammers as a result. However as Martin pointed out Payet appeared to handle leaving the club completely the wrong way and it’s hard to see Arnautovic doing that as it stands. The 29-year-old forward seems to generally enjoy life at the London Stadium and seems to relish being a fan favourite. While he may be tempted by the wage packet that may potentially be offered to him, it’s no guarantee that he’ll jump at the chance to play in China due to the amount of cash thought to be on offer. Arnautovic has already appeared to be a confident character and you feel that he’ll believe he is worthy of playing in a higher quality division than the one currently on offer in China.
