Marko Arnautovic’s potential move to China is “off” as champions Shanghai SIPG have “cooled their interest”, according to the Sun.
The newspaper claim the Austrian striker is not in the right frame of mind to play for West Ham against Bournemouth on Saturday and Manuel Pellegrini has omitted him from the squad.
The Sun report West Ham had been holding out for £45million for Arnautovic after rejecting an opening bid of £35million from Shanghai for the forward last week.
OPINION
On the face of it, this is good news, reported in the paper who have Karren Brady as a longstanding columnist, for Irons. Fans will be delighted that their star player has lost out on a mid-season move that would have deprived their team of one of its most effective weapons for the second half of a campaign that is promising so much. But, there must be concerned that Arnautovic’s head is not in the right place, and that he won’t be in the squad that faces Bournemouth. Whatever happened to the so-called excellent professionalism of the 29-year-old? Has that now gone out of the window after he waved goodbye to fans last weekend? There are plenty of other questions that will be on the lips of the Hammers faithful. Can Arnautovic get back on board once he gets over the pain of his moneygrabbing move hitting the rock? Does he have other irons in the fire, with two weeks of the January window remaining? There is a sense this saga is far from over.