West Ham United will demand £60m for Manchester United target Marko Arnautovic according to The Mirror (h/t The Metro).
The Austrian had only joined the Premier League side at the start of last season for a fee of £24m but is reportedly a target for Jose Mourinho this summer.
The 29-year-old was one of the brighter performers for the Hammers as his 11 goals and 6 assists in the Premier League saved them from the drop and Mourinho was even spotted in the stands when Arnautovic’s Austria defeated Russia in a friendly.
The report from the Metro also goes on to say that Mourinho believes the Austrian would be a decent back-up for our star striker Romelu Lukaku. United, however, are not willing to meet the £60m asking price and value the 29-year-old at £35m.
Mourinho has worked with Arnautovic in the past when the pair was at Inter Milan but the Austrian was shipped off to the Bundesliga after failing to make a mark in the Serie A.
For all the good work he did with West Ham last season, we simply cannot be bullied into paying the amount West Ham want for a player that has had his issues in the past.
The 29-year-old has blown hot and cold since moving to the Premier League and he is certainly not worth £60m. This is possibly a measure to ensure United do not come looking for him and hopefully, we go out there and sign some other young striker that can do the job for us.
We already have the likes of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford that can play as the striker, and giving them more opportunities next season is a better way to ease the burden on Lukaku.
If anyone’s doing any bullying, it’s Manchester United not West Ham! Our club obviously do not want to sell him and the reported £60m price tag reflects that. If the reports about The Moany one texting Arnie’s brother and agent are true, then he’s guilty of tapping up. I don’t see that West Ham are doing anything wrong here at all. We simply don’t want to sell our biggest asset, to anyone.
Honestly – This is a transfer that shouldn’t happen. Would not be pleased seeing United go in for him, purely because he doesn’t represent an obvious improvement. He favours the left side, just like Sanchez, Rashford and Martial. He’s objectively a step down from Rashford and Martial, who both have better stats in the EPL per time played over the last season.
United should only be considering folks who are most comfortable attacking from the right. Also think it’d be good for West Ham’s position in the market to just tell United a flat out no unless their finances force their hand.
Agree with the Hammers fan below – This is us bullying them, not the other way around. Only a muppet would consider a smaller club standing its ground to be bullying. It’s little wonder so many football fans hate us when entitled idiocy like that graces our fan pages.