Exclusive: McAvennie claims West Ham players won’t want Arnautovic back
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie claims West Ham fans and even the players will not want Marko Arnautovic back at the club amid speculation about a shock return to East London.
Arnautovic, 31, left the Hammers in acrimonious circumstances in 2019 when he joined Shanghai SIPG after trying to force his way out of the London Stadium.
According to reliable West Ham insider ExWHUemployee, David Moyes is keen to re-sign Arnautovic in order to beef up his striker options this season.
However, McAvennie believes that the Austrian’s return would go down like a lead balloon if Moyes got what he wanted.
“Listen to the fans, the fans don’t want him,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone.
“The players don’t want him either. I know there was unrest in the dressing room when he was there and when he wanted to leave.
“That is not good for any football team.
“If you want to move then you’ve still got to do it for the team, your team-mates and the fans until you get that move. He just downed tools – you can’t do that.”
West Ham could do with signing a new striker in the January transfer window with Michail Antonio struggling with injury issues and Sebastien Haller failing to have anywhere near as much of an impact as his team-mate.
Other than those two, Moyes is rather devoid of options up front so a new second or third-choice striker would go down well if David Sullivan and David Gold allow the manager to get one.
Moyes need to be left alone to sign someone though and Sullivan shouldn’t stick his nose in and make one of his own infamous signings.
Vladimir Coufal, Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek have all been massive hits in East London since Moyes signed them.
He’s proven he can get good players at the club so let’s hope he can get a good striker in this month.
But please, don’t let it be Arnautovic.
In other West Ham news, here’s how Tomas Soucek has made himself so lethal inside the penalty box.