Arnautovic admits disrespect

It will come as no surprise to most Irons supporters to read that Marko Arnautovic failed to take the Chinese League seriously after his £22.5 million move from the London Stadium.

The player was always considered arrogant as a Hammer despite his goal-scoring feats…a scenario which had most of us having a love/hate relationship with the bloke.

He couldn’t wait to get out of the club when the opportunity came – aided and abetted by his brother/agent Danjiel -and has declared on various occasions that he wishes he could have rejoined the Irons.

Instead, he chose to stay where he is but has now admitted that he failed to give Shanghai SIPG.the respect it deserved after they paid out £22.5 million for the now 31-year-old.

As reported by Beanyman Sports, Arnautovic said: ‘I underestimated it. I didn’t train. I didn’t look after my body. I was eating. I was drinking fizzy drinks – Sprite, Coca Cola, Fanta – all these sugar drinks that are not good for the body.

‘Eating at wrong times. Not sleeping, because when I came to China it took me about three weeks until I could adapt to the time. I went to bed at 6, 7 o’clock in the morning. I woke up 3, 4 o’clock in the afternoon, went to training, stayed up again all night, eating at wrong times.’

The 31-year-old subsequently took matters much more seriously and outlined that he has to perform well to match the club’s expectations of him.

He said: ‘This is exactly what I said before. Now I just put in my mind the club wanted me to come, to do well, to play for the title, and I changed because I need to do better and I need to be better. Otherwise, you can’t play here.’

Arnautovic has 14 goals in 23 appearances for Shanghai SIPG so far. His contract with the club is set to run until December 2022.

While at West Ham Arnautovic scored 22 goals in 65 games and was named Hammer of the Year for the 2017-18 campaign.