Former West Ham United great Martin Allen has expressed his disappointment with how Marko Arnautovic’s time with the club ended.
The 30-year-old departed for Chinese side Shanghai SIPG earlier this summer, having tried to engineer a move there in January, and Allen isn’t happy with the way he did things.
“I saw him play 18 months ago and I thought what an amazing player, he was one of the best players I’ve seen in a West Ham shirt,” he told West Ham World. “He lost interest in everything and the crowd rightly turned on him.
“The manager would have been absolutely tearing his hair out and his teammates would have been absolutely livid with him. This deal is the best thing that could possibly happen, to get him out of the door early to give West Ham a chance to get in early and get a positive replacement. The best thing to happen is to get shot of him.”
OPINION
Allen’s hit the nail on the head, here. Arnautovic, in terms of pure talent, is up there with the likes of Paolo Di Canio and Dimitri Payet in the pantheon of modern day West Ham stars, but his temperament was so far past what could be considered acceptable that it rendered him a hate figure in east London towards the end. He was constantly looking for a move away, an opportunity to earn more money. He’s a mercenary, at the end of the day, he has no special feeling for the clubs he represents, he’s simply doing a job for which he expects to be well paid. The West Ham supporters, though, expect you to at least earn your keep. Arnautovic did that and then some for a time, but as soon as things didn’t go his way he kicked his toys out the pram. That’s the sort of guy he is, and it’s likely why he’ll fade into obscurity while picking up his precious pay cheque over in China.