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da prosport bet： As Shanghai SIPG reportedly prepare an improved bid for Mark Arnautovic, the ghosts of January transfer windows past loom large over West Ham, most notably the ghoulish figure of Dimitri Payet – the club’s previous talismanic entity, who forced a mid-season departure to Marseille in 2017.
There’s no suggestion yet that Arnautovic will mimic the Frenchman by essentially going on strike in a bid to accelerate his exit, but you wouldn’t put it past a player whose attitude has been questioned at various stages of his career, especially after his brother essentially made a public plea to the club to relinquish the Austrian international.
You also wouldn’t put it past Arnautovic, should West Ham refuse to sanction his departure, to start causing problems behind the scenes and in the dressing room. Ian Wright’s already put his name to that theory, declaring an unhappy Arnautovic will become ‘a problem’ if he’s denied a move that would see his earnings multiply.
Even if Arnautovic’s attitude does take a turn though, and even if West Ham are subsequently forced to demote him to the reserves for the rest of the season, the Irons must stand strong and block an exit that not only threatens to derail or at the very least slow down what has thus far been a strong season for the east Londoners, but also set an incredibly dangerous precedent.
A Premier League club with West Ham’s lofty ambitions simply can’t allow their most important players to dictate the terms of their own departures mid-season. First Payet; now Arnautovic; next it will be Felipe Anderson, the newest emerging force at the London Stadium.
Due to the strong likelihood of him ending up at another English club, his January exit could be the costliest of them all. Should his level of form be sustained for the next calendar year, there will no doubt be Premier League interest in his services – and when you trade with clubs in the same division, the impact is always doubled. That’s why West Ham need to make a stand over Arnautovic’s exit now.
If they establish themselves as tough negotiators, Anderson’s potential suitors will be reluctant to deal with West Ham, especially during the ever-problematic January window, or at the very least accept they’ll need to pay top dollar. If West Ham succumb to Arnautovic’s wishes, two years after doing the same with Payet, they’ll inevitably be perceived as a soft touch – a club that surrenders its best players as soon as they express a desire to leave. That’s all it will come down to with Anderson – turning his head to the extent that he forces a move.
Of course, there are legitimate reasons to sell Arnautovic, even if £45million (albeit significantly higher than his Transfermarkt valuation of £31.5million) still seems a little cheap for a centre-forward enjoying the peak of his career. Despite his phenomenal form over the last twelve months, 29-year-old strikers suffering from constant injury problems don’t tend to stay at the top of their game for very long.
The current transfer window and the next are probably West Ham’s only opportunity to fetch a big price for their ageing frontman, and the fee they’d receive would at the very least finance the majority of a move for a younger replacement, if not fund it completely. If the Irons are smart about it, they can sell Arnautovic and sign a successor capable of leading the line for the best part of the next decade.
But there is an obvious short-term cost too, in terms of West Ham’s immediate results. The top six may be beyond them this season but seventh place is still up for grabs and in perhaps the most polarised period of the Premier League era, proving you’re the best of the rest is an achievement in itself. It would also breed confidence and belief into a club that has desperately lacked it since relocating to the London Stadium.
And it also goes against the mindset Pellegrini is trying to instil throughout the club. After beating Arsenal on Sunday, he praised his side’s ability to ‘have the mentality of a big team’. Only under very rare and unaccommodating circumstances do big teams sell their most important players halfway through a season, and it’s not as if West Ham are under pressure here – Arnautovic’s contract isn’t due to expire until summer 2022, another three-and-a-half years.
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There is unquestionably a distinct possibility, as already mentioned, that Arnautovic’s attitude turns sour should West Ham deny him the chance to move to China, that he becomes such a disruptive influence that the rest of his campaign is spent with the U23s or potentially even banished from the training ground, a scenario that would damage both West Ham’s season and the striker’s value as an asset on the transfer market.
And yet, the damage in the long run could be far greater. It’s very difficult to shake off the perception of being a selling club, both internally and externally, and it will always be a barrier to West Ham breaking into the top six. If that remains the board’s ambitions and if they don’t want to face this same fight every January, next time negotiating Anderson’s exit, Arnautovic simply can’t be allowed to leave this month.
It’s a matter of principle.