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West Ham reject £35m Marko Arnautovic bid from Chinese club
West Ham United have received a bid in excess of £35million for Marko Arnautovic.
The outline offer has been made by a Chinese club and has been rejected out of hand by West Ham.
Senior club sources say they will not allow Arnautovic to leave during the January transfer window – and point out the offer is only around £10million more than they paid for the forward in 2017.
The Austrian was signed from Stoke City on a five-year deal for a fee rising to £25million and was also wanted, this window, by Jose Mourinho should he have remained as Manchester United manager.
However, West Ham have no intention of allowing Arnautovic to leave this month. The identity of the Chinese club has not been divulged, and the club wants to remain anonymous, but figures on both sides of the deal have assured Telegraph Sport the offer is genuine.
Arnautovic, 29, has become an important player at West Ham after struggling initially when he joined the club. He is expected to be available for this Saturday’s home Premier League game against Arsenal after being substituted in the first-half of the FA Cup win over Birmingham City – in which he scored – as a precautionary measure.
"He felt some pain in his back at the beginning," manager Manuel Pellegrini said after the match, with Arnautovic appearing unhappy at being taken off. "I thought that it was better to change him because he is just coming off another injury and he played 90 minutes less than 72 hours ago. After that he could continue but I think it was not good to take the risk. It was just a precaution.”
West Ham fans will nevertheless fear a re-run of the saga that led to Dimitri Payet who, as Arnautovic is now, was the team’s talisman forcing his way out of the club to rejoin Marseille in January 2017. However, West Ham insist this will not happen and are determined to keep hold of Arnautovic at least until the summer.
He is already West Ham’s highest-paid player although it is understood the Chinese club are also proposing a substantial increase on his wages.
West Ham sources point out that there has been significant inflation in the transfer market since they signed Arnautovic, who they want to keep and who has done well for them, and so they would not consider the offer from China anywhere near their valuation should they decide to sell in the summer.