Chris Sutton has been left sickened by the antics of West Ham striker Marko Arnautovic.
The BBC Sport pundit revealed he would be “furious” if he was a Hammers supporting after watching the video of the striker announcing he had signed a contract extension.
West Ham infuriated supporters by uploading the clip on to their media channels half an hour after being dumped out of the FA Cup by AFC Wimbledon on Saturday night.
“There must be West Ham fans who felt like vomiting watching that video of Arnautovic,” Sutton told the Daily Mail. “Staring into the camera, Arnautovic says he’s back (where did he go?) and that he loves the London Stadium.
“He also tells us only to believe what he is saying. Seriously? His brother and agent Danijel did enough talking when he said his client wants to move to China to win trophies.
“Arnautovic then finishes it all off with a wink. For the second week in a row, he was not in Manuel Pellegrini’s squad. Once again, West Ham lost.
“Had Arnautovic not thrown his toys out of the pram this month in a bid to move to China, this result could have been very different. If I was a fan, I’d be furious.”
OPINION
West Ham fans everywhere will be nodding their heads in agreement at Sutton’s comments. As the strident pundit points out, Arnautovic’s extension video was wrong on so many levels – the timing was spectacularly awful, and the content was nearly as bad. Supporters have spent the last two weeks fretting over the striker’s potential exit (although maybe not quite so much as the egocentric Austria and his deluded brother agent might like to believe), and they will be glad he is staying. For now. But they’re not stupid, either. The Arnautovic brothers can’t retract the comments they made, and the extension does not change the fact that the player is very unlikely to be at the London Stadium next season. It is merely a device to keep the forward on board, and to stop him sulking for the next four months. One thing’s for sure. It would have helped the club enormously if it had all been properly sorted before the FA Cup humiliation, rather than after it.