Former West Ham United striker Ian Wright has said that his old club should sell wantaway frontman Marko Arnautovic.
BBC Sport reported last week that an unnamed Chinese club had submitted a £35million bid for the Austrian international, and Wright is keen to see the end of the 29-year-old at the London Stadium.
“I’m sure [Manuel] Pellegrini wants to keep him, [but] he wants to go – I would let him go,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I think he’s going to be a problem. I think he’s been a problem most of the places he’s been.
“You could see, the way he came off the pitch on Saturday, that he’s gone. He wants to go and I would let him go, because West Ham have got something going. I genuinely think it’s the money. It’s never the principle in that respect, it’s always the money.”
OPINION
This seems to be the consensus from most pundits at the moment. While it’s true that the Hammers will struggle to find someone of Arnautovic’s quality to replace him, you just can’t keep unhappy players at the club. The Austrian has always been a bit of a spiky character and you don’t want his discontent to filter through into the rest of the dressing room if he’s denied a move – particularly when the team seems to be finding its feet under Pellegrini. Wright is correct that Arnautovic’s mooted move away is all down to money, what else could it be about? He’s not dreamed of playing in China since he was a kid, has he? He wants to go and get paid an extortionate amount of money to kick a ball about with a load of players who are way below his level. That’s fine, go and do that. West Ham should ramp up the price for him as much as they can and then sell him. Then they can replace him with a top class player who actually wants to play for the club.
