OPINION
West Ham United fans will no doubt be hoping that the whole fiasco surrounding the future of their star striker Marko Arnautovic will soon be at an end.
After all, he has been their main talisman this season, so why would they want him to leave for bigger things?
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson is in obvious disagreement with the Hammers faithful, as he believes that that the first teamer should be playing for a bigger club – and that West Ham would even “drop him off themselves” if they could get between £50-60 million for his services.
“He says he wants to leave West Ham and play in the Champions League and you can’t really blame him. He should be playing for a bigger club,” he said in his Daily Star column.
“He’s good enough to get into the Manchester City team, at least as a squad player. And he would walk into Manchester United’s team. Arsenal? They would take him. Chelsea? Them too.
“West Ham will talk tough but they are in it to make money. If they can get £50-60m for him they would drop him off themselves.”
The Irons supporters will be absolutely livid with these remarks – why wouldn’t they? Not one single fan would want to see him in a Manchester United shirt next season.
West Ham need to decide whether they are in it for the money, or whether they care deeply about the success of the team.
Any party bidding for Arnautovic will no doubt come in with a mouth-watering offer in January, and this will no doubt be a test as to whether they are serious about keeping him.
Merson is right, he does deserve to be playing for a bigger club, and at the age of 29, not many more opportunities are going to come his way.
Nevertheless, the fans will be absolutely livid in the way Merson has touted the Austria forward as basically being too good for their club – which is not a surprise in the slightest.