Dean Ashton slammed West Ham attacker Marko Arnautovic for the way he conducted himself in the January transfer window.
The former Hammers player shared it’s never nice to see a player’s agent speak for them in regards to wanting a move and ever since he has done that, his form has suffered.
However while Ashton pointed out that while Arnautovic hasn’t put his head down in order to win fans over with great performances since signing a new deal to dismiss talk of his exit, he does have an excuse for his form as he has struggled with injury.
“Arnautovic didn’t help anybody. It’s never nice to see agents coming out and making statements for players and then suddenly you see the player taking a picture with the badge and signing a new deal,” said Ashton on Love Sport Radio, as transcribed by their website.
“It all didn’t sit very well with supporters. We haven’t seen the best of him since.
“It’s not as though that has happened and he’s got his head down and put in great performances.
“He’s struggled a bit with injury so it’s kind of left a bit of a sour taste for everybody and it didn’t help the team.”
OPINION
While it’s easy to rip into Arnautovic over his recent form as he has been disappointing, it might not be resulting of his head not being in the right place. It was made clear in January that the Hammers attacker’s head had been turned by potential interest in China and he looked destined to exit as a result. Yet the move never materialised and the club instead announced that the forward had put pen to paper on a new deal. The only issue is that contract seemed more like a PR exercise to stop fans fuming at the way Arnautovic treated the club, and supporters weren’t going to be convinced the 29-year-old’s heart still was with the Hammers. Yet Ashton is spot-on to offer a potential excuse for the player’s downturn in form since 2019 begun. Arnautovic does seem to be not 100% fit and did seem to be inflicted with niggling injuries at the start of the campaign, so it’s plausible they have caught up with and are causing his performances to suffer.
