West Ham United captain Mark Noble has said he has a hunch that star man Marko Arnautovic won’t leave the club in the January transfer window.
Arnautovic’s brother and agent Daniel stirred up a heap of transfer speculation recently when he told Austrian publication Kurier that the 29-year-old was ready to leave the Hammers, but Noble doesn’t believe that will happen, instead tipping the attacker to have a big impact against Manchester City on Saturday.
“On Saturday, we’re at home to Manchester City, the best team in English football and the side who will, in my opinion, lift the Premier League title again next May,” he wrote in his Evening Standard column. “As a player, though, you look forward to these games, the big ones — and no-one does so more than our talisman, Marko Arnautovic.
“‘Arnie’ is back from international duty with Austria, he’s trained well this week and I know enough about him to be absolutely sure he’ll be relishing this challenge.
“Not unusually, he’s been in the news over the past couple of weeks and as players, we’ve seen and read all the speculation about other clubs being interested in him in January. Will he go? No — but that’s just a hunch on my part.”
OPINION
This might simply be wishful thinking on Noble’s part, but it’s encouraging to hear from a West Ham perspective anyway. Arnautovic is, of course, central to everything positive that the Hammers are doing at the moment and they will obviously want him to remain at the club for a long time to come. From the player’s perspective, however, he is 29 years of age and will likely see a move as his final chance to play for a team that are competing for trophies. Still, Noble knows the Austrian better than we do so his hunch is worth a lot more than any of ours. Arnautovic is the type of player who would be able to give City serious problems on Saturday. He is a physical player, but also very mobile and as such it will be tough for City’s defenders to deal with him. Pep Guardiola will know this and will have set his team up ready to stop Arnautovic doing what he does best. The champions will be the favourites at the London Stadium, of course, but if Arnautovic is on song then West Ham might just, just have a chance.
