Why West Ham United must hold onto Marko Arnautovic at all costs
When Slaven Bilic was sacked by West Ham United last November, the club were in 18th place with just 2 wins in 11 games. The reality of relegation loomed large for the Hammers. To make things worse, the West Ham board appointed David Moyes as the new manager.
Fast forward to May 2018 and West Ham secured their Premier League status for another year, with 2 games to spare. Moyes did play his part but the protagonist of the season was one man and one man only, Marko Arnautovic.
Marko Arnautovic joined West Ham for a club-record fee of £25million from Stoke City last summer. An explosive left-winger by trade, Arnautovic seemed like the ideal player to fill the void left by Dimitri Payet. However, the hot-headed Austrian was sent off in his second game and for the first few months, the move looked like an utter failure.
But since Moyes took charge of the club, things looked different. The long list of injuries forced him to make some tactical tweaks and he started Arnautovic as a striker instead of a left-winger against Chelsea. The result? West Ham beat the defending champions 1-0 and Arnautovic scored the winner.
In the coming months, Arnautovic was on fire as he scored 11 goals and provided 6 assists in the Premier League. His goals single-handedly dragged West Ham out of the relegation zone and helped them finish 13th.
Over the summer, West Ham hired Manuel Pellegrini to take the club ahead. Along with Pellegrini, a number of high-profile names like Jack Wilshere, Felipe Anderson, Fabian Balbuena, Andriy Yarmolenko and Lucas Perez joined the club.
Despite the high investment, West Ham are currently languishing at the bottom of the Premier League table. They have lost four out of four and Pellegrini’s men have conceded 10 goals so far.
Over the summer, Daily Star had linked Arnautovic to a move away from east London. But the club should do everything they can to keep the Austrian at the club. To be fair, the problems West Ham are facing right now has nothing to do with Arnautovic. Their transfer policy was flawed as they bought too many similar players and didn’t invest in the areas they needed to.
The likes of Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko and Lucas Perez are quite similar. The former two fall in the playmaker category more than the winger category. Even Lucas Perez is not a super-fast forward who can make runs behind the defenders to stretch the defence all over the place.
As a result, there is a lot of pressure on Arnautoivic to do everything himself. He has already scored the only two goals for the Hammers this season. In fact, he often looks like a lonely and isolated figure up front with no proper wingers to cross the ball or create spaces.
West Ham’s problems are so major that it will take more than one transfer window to show positive results. It’s the job of the scouts and the board to constantly look for possible new recruitments but at the same time, it is equally important to keep Arnautovic at all costs.
Read More: Opinion: Keeping faith in Manuel Pellegrini and not taking rash decisions key for West Ham United
Letting him leave could have a severely negative impact on the club. Without a character like Arnautovic in the dressing room, West Ham will certainly fall short of leaders, both on and off the pitch. To make matters worse, the might just get relegated.
