Former West Ham United midfielder Kevin Nolan has revealed that Hammers captain Mark Noble is always telling him that attacker Marko Arnautovic is a great lad.
The Austrian international has come in for criticism recently after Sky Sports reported that the club are ready to sell him in a ‘terrible deal’ because he wants a move to China.
Now, Nolan has had his say: “When I talk to Nobes [Noble] he says how much of a great lad he is,” he told talkSPORT [05/06; 08:10]. “But when I look at it as a former skipper, he’d be a bit of a nightmare to handle, from what Ive heard of him, in the dressing room when things aren’t going his way.
“Once he doesn’t get it [his own way], he spits his dummy out the pram. I think West Ham are doing the best thing ever in getting him out of the club.”
OPINION
It’s interesting, because when you see how his teammates act around him you do get the sense that the people at West Ham do like Arnautovic and enjoy his company. Clearly Noble is a fan, which is perhaps surprising given how much of a die hard Hammer he is. Arnautovic has been messing the club around for months, yet Noble thinks he’s a great lad despite that. So clearly personality-wise he’s a decent person, but it does seem as if he is chasing the money on offer over in China. Nolan thinks the club are doing the best thing they can in getting rid of him, and it’s hard to argue with that. He’s someone who has clearly created discord between himself and the Hammers on more than one occasion, and so it’s best to move him on. You can’t have players at the club who don’t want to be there, because they become a cancer in the dressing room.
