Recent reports have suggested that Marko Arnautovic wants to leave West Ham. The Hammers can ill-afford to allow the 29-year-old to leave the club, at least not till the end of the season.
Arnautovic hinted last week Wednesday that he is at a stage of his career where he may want to be playing for a club that can offer him the chance to appear in Europe and the former Inter Milan player has been linked with moves to Manchester United as well as Chelsea.
The Hammers have made an inconsistent start to the season. They currently languish in 13th place on the standings with 12 points from 12 games. If they gel well, they could potentially finish on the top half of the standings this season which will be a decent achievement. However, if things go wrong and they start playing like how they played during the first four games of the Premier League which they lost, they could still face a relegation battle.
So far Arnautovic has been one of the best players from the Hammers squad. He has managed to score 5 goals from 11 games in the English top-flight.
Apart from the Austrian, Pellegrini does not have a reliable goal-scorer in his squad. Javier Hernandez does not look like the player that he was years ago as the Mexican has yet to find the back of the net this season. Meanwhile, Andy Caroll is usually out injured for large parts of the season and even when he is available, he tends to be inconsistent in front of goal.
The Hammers need to do all that they can to keep hold of Arnautovic or else they could be set to face a relegation battle.
Article written for Flaming Hairdryer by Eshlin Vedan