OPINION
West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini will hopefully prove Shaun Derry right as the 41-year-old weighed in with his opinion on the reports surrounding Marko Arnautovic.
The Guardian previously reported that Pellegrini had told the Hammers board to sell the 30-year-old forward and that club had decided to cut their losses on him and grant the manager’s wish.
Arnautovic was reported by talkSPORT on Friday as having passed his medical ahead of a move to Chinese club Shanghai SIPG, and as a result, Derry was asked for his opinion on the matter.
Derry, who is usually heard on talkSPORT 2, claimed that Arnautovic didn’t represent the type of manager Pellegrini was and that the signings under him, past and present, will promote a calmer atmosphere at the London Stadium.
“I go back to the type of manager Manuel Pellegrini is like, I think he will like calmness within in that football club and I think the signings he has made and the signings he is going to make in the future are going to more represent him as a manager,” said Derry on talkSPORT (18:24, Saturday, July 6th).
“Arnautovic doesn’t represent him in my opinion.”
Hopefully, Pellegrini proves Derry right to claim that Arnautovic isn’t a player that reflects his management style as how nice would it be to have a drama-free season at the Hammers?
The Austrian attacker may have finished as the club’s top-scorer with 11 goals, averaging a goal every 184 minutes (Source: BBC), but his negative influence and drama-loving ways arguably stopped the club achieving more in their 2018/19 campaign.
West Ham defender Pablo Zabaleta suggested in January, after the Hammers went on a bad run of form, that Arnautovic’s transfer saga regarding a move to China had perhaps affected on-field performances.
“Honestly, I think so many situations off the field have been creating a little bit of a bad atmosphere,” stated Zabaleta, as quoted by the Guardian.
While Arnautovic is a fantastic talent and one the Hammers would love to keep if his attitude could be sorted, it would be better to have quality players with no drama on the books.
So with that in mind, hopefully, Derry is right about Pellegrini.
