West Ham are reportedly ready to accept a ‘terrible deal’ to offload wantaway forward Marko Arnautovic.
The Austria international has handed in a transfer request at the London Stadium amid interest from the Chinese Super League, having previously failed to engineer a move away from the club in the January transfer window.
Following the collapse of a January move to China, Arnautovic signed an improved contract extension at West Ham, however just six months later the 30-year-old has told the club he wants to leave.
West Ham were reportedly ready to play hardball and hold out for a fee of £40m for the forward, however the club are now ready to sanction the sale of the unsettled star for a cut-price fee.
Arnautovic’s brother and agent, Danijel, further angered the club’s hierarchy by claiming West Ham are using Marko as he attempts to engineer a lucrative move to China.
According to Sky Sports’ Kaveh Solhekol, West Ham will now sell Arnautovic in what the club have described as a ‘terrible deal’ as they bid to avoid a long-running transfer-saga, with Shanghai Shenua a reported destination.
“I have been in touch with a very senior source at West Ham and asked him ‘are you okay with us reporting that a deal has been agreed for Arnautovic to go to China? We have heard it will be announced in two days.’ Solhekol said.
“He has just sent me a reply, and the reply says ‘yes. Terrible deal for us, but manager, staff and players want him out’.
“They are so desperate to get him out of the club that they are willing to do a terrible deal to get him out of West Ham.
“I have had another message from someone else who knows what is going on at West Ham, and it says ‘a deal is getting closer for Marko to leave €25m. We feel we have no choice but to let Marko go as it is bad for team morale if he stays.
“‘The team is the most important thing and players who want to play for a team moving in the right direction is the most important thing.'”
Sheringham tells West Ham to ‘take the money’ and ‘move on’ from Arnautovic
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