West Ham United attacker Marko Arnautovic’s much-anticipated move to China has collapsed, according to the Sun.
The newspaper claims that the Austrian international has been left in limbo as he will no longer make the switch to the Far East, as Shanghai SIPG have cooled their interest in him.
The Chinese champions had previously submitted an offer worth £35million for the 29-year-old, and the player was thought to be interested in a move away from the London Stadium.
However, it now looks like that won’t be happening. Hammers manager Manuel Pellegrini has pulled Arnautovic from the squad to face Bournemouth on Saturday because he is not in the right frame of mind to play.
OPINION
Well, the good news from a West Ham perspective is that Arnautovic seemingly won’t be leaving for China any time soon. However, the fact that he’s not expected to feature against the Cherries isn’t good for the Hammers. He remains one of the club’s most talented players and so any time he is not available to play the team is weaker. No reason has been given for why Shanghai SIPG have decided against the move, but Hammers fans won’t care about that. The bigger issue now is whether he will be discontented over the rest of the campaign or whether he gets his head down and returns to the form he displayed in the first half of the season. If he’s going to be moping about the place then he’s no good to anyone, but hopefully Pellegrini is able to knock some sense into him and have him contributing again in no time.
