Written by : @ThatIngramGuy

With the recent lack of form from Pellegrini’s Hammers this January, one could be forgiven for putting some of the blame on club talisman Marko Arnautovic.

“A source close to Arnautovic have told us that two Chinese clubs are after him, Shanghai SIPG and Guangzhou Evergrande;” a quote from SkySports that the football world and West Ham fans were met with early this January. While many were caught off guard by the headlines and attitude being received by Arnie and his agent, this was something we could have foreseen happening  once we signed the former Potter in the summer of 2017 based on his attitude when leaving Stoke. But, nonetheless, this entire vain attempt at moving to China for 300k a week has been proven to have been caused by none other than Marko’s brother and agent Mr. Danijel Arnautovic (who earlier this year had reported that Manchester United were interested in a 50 Million pound transfer for the Austrian forward).

As discussed previously in this article on Andy Carroll, transfer rumors are quite common during the window and whether or not they actually transpire is a different story. This transfer rumor actually had some light to it, but what will concern Hammers fans the most here is the attitude towards the club and the attempt to force the club to make the move by Marko – our man who has touched the badge and crossed the Hammers after every goal he has scored for us. Not only has Marko put it all on the line for us and played some of the best football of his career as a Hammer, he’s claimed his love for us and the club time and time again. Its quite fair to say we love watching Marko play and score for this club, but has that love been abused? The man we trusted showed us exactly what he showed Stoke fans when we managed to snag and wrap him in the claret and blue. The first opportunity Marko had to heal his relationship with Stoke and make amends with his former squad he showed complete disrespect after scoring against them, and that goes to show his character. Can we trust in someone who throws a tantrum over money and refuses to play in the squad just to turn around and finally break his silence the second he gets paid, is that genuine love for the shirt?

It’s clear Arnie is here to stay (at least until the summer window) but with rumors of Maxi Gomez coming in and the confused, quiet rumblings of another Payet situation having exposed itself amongst the fans, can Arnie repair what he’s done? After watching this squad play post Arnie’s transfer nonsense (the Wimbledon FA Cup game) one can begin to wonder if his attitude has had an effect on this squad and its chemistry. The players haven’t yet pulled a Payet and dumped Arnie out of the squad group chat, but equally, Arnie hasn’t kept his promise to Noble that while he is a Hammer he would give 100% to this club – and Zabaleta has publicly stated that the situation had created a “bad atmosphere” within the club.

The recent negative run of form by the squad and the distracted and depressing attitudes of the players on the pitch would suggest that he has had an impact on the squad, one that we can only hope mends itself considering the massive effort we are going to need to finish in the top 7. With the current state of things and the desired outcome there’s really only one thing we can do. Back the club, back the board, back Arnie, and trust in Pellegrini. Its tough to forgive Arnie for his attitude but his success is our success and we are going to need all the help we can get to make the Europa League.