Some West Ham supporters have been sharing their hopes for Director of Football Mario Husillos retaining Marko Arnautovic this summer now that the English transfer window has opened.
The Austrian’s January drama threw his status as a fan favourite in East London into a nosedive, and the 30-year-old struggled for form and fitness once he put pen to paper on a new contract.
A strong end to the season by the £31.5million-rated hitman, though, has helped to bring some of the London Stadium faithful back on side, and there is allegedly a growing feeling behind the scenes that Arnautovic also now wants to stay at the club.
Not every supporter would be happy to see the 77-cap international lining up in Claret and Blue when the new Premier League season rolls around in August, it has to be said, but retaining the 11 goal, 4 assist ace would help to keep some familiarity to our attack next term thanks to the doubt over Javier Hernandez and Lucas Perez’s time in Stratford.
It took Felipe Anderson a while to bed into Manuel Pellegrini’s system on the back of his summer move from Lazio a year ago, too, and if we were to struggle to score goals with a new striker finding his feet at the club or in the country, then we could be facing another frustrating campaign.
That may be why these fans would prefer the former Stoke winger remains a Hammer this summer…
Stay, no question about it.
— West Ham Transfers (@westhamtransfer) May 17, 2019
Stay. Anyone who says otherwise is being stubborn and needs to get over it
— ⚒ Tez ⚒ (@TezzyWHU) May 17, 2019
I think he should stay, but we also need to have a quality striker for when he’s sulky. Give him some competion for his place.
— jonjo (@jonjowiz) May 17, 2019
Really hope he stays. Class act when his head is right and he’d be impossible to replace at the price the club paid for him. Showed signs in last few games of the season of the form and appetite the fans love.
— Martin Brooks (@Brooksie1966) May 17, 2019
Want him to stay, hes one of our best players and is our best striker in a long long time. If he stays fit for most of next season I think he’ll get close to 20 goals.
— Chris (@chriscod1993) May 17, 2019
I want him to stay because he is a very good footballer….but I strongly suspect that he can occasionally be just a bit “difficult”!!
— Philip Higgins (@peejayaich) May 17, 2019
Stay. Makes sense for us and him and MP likes him.
— AJ عاطف (@janjuase7en8) May 17, 2019
great player we need him to stay
— jackie connell (@jackie_connell) May 17, 2019
Stay, and play deeper for Maxi
— Stammers (@NYHammer2) May 17, 2019
I want him to stay he is the best ‘striker’ we have.
— malcolm robert brown (@malcolmrbrown53) May 17, 2019
We should keep him but also sign some more quality up front so we wont miss him too much if he decides to throw another strop.
— Gnat (@mattaw1982) May 17, 2019