West Ham striker Marko Arnautovic has revealed that he was a part of a changing room bust up where numerous players clashed with each other about their poor start to the Premier League campaign.
The Hammers’ first four games resulted in four straight defeats in Manuel Pellegrini’s start to life in the manager’s hotseat at the London Stadium – and after the final defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers, a few first team members became embroiled in a heated disagreement.
However, Arnautovic – who is on £100,000-a-week [Spotrac] – has revealed that this argument spurred the Irons on to claim their first victory of the season over Everton at Goodison Park last weekend.
“The manager came into the dressing-room after the [Wolves] game. He wasn’t happy. He was angry with our performance. We had it out among ourselves. What had to be said was said. It was good — it was heated in there. I was the captain, so yes, I was involved. There were voices raised,” he told the Mirror.
“You can’t keep losing and say nothing. Everybody had to understand we are a club with a big history and tradition and that we can’t be where we are in the table. We needed to be hard on ourselves.
“It is not about the manager. He gives us the details, it’s up to us to follow them. But it’s all said and everyone knows now. We have to give everything on the pitch — and I think that we did that at Everton.”
OPINION
West Ham were certainly not in a good place following the last defeat to Wolves, and that does not come as a surprise. What does not come as a surprise however, is the fact that Arnautovic got involved in an argument with other players over their recent form. As players, it was only right that they questioned the team’s performances, which at the time were beyond poor. Nevertheless, that altercation seems to have worked wonders for West Ham – they were impressive against the Toffees last weekend, and certainly made a case for themselves when they drew 0-0 with Chelsea on Sunday. It seems to have spurred them on to deliver the displays that the fans know that they are capble of, and they will have their fingers crossed that it continues for the foreseeable future. The players had to recognise where they were going wrong – and now that they have, they should be in for a much better season.
