Arnie announces he’s staying at West Ham

Marko Arnautovic has thrown one of the biggest curved balls in recent football history by declaring that he is staying at West Ham.

In a personal message starting ‘Dear West Ham Fans‘ he has defied all our beliefs by saying that he wants to repay the club for pointing his career in the right direction.”

It’s an incredible turnabout by the player who appeared to have waved goodbye to the fans on his last appearance.

And after failing to appear last weekend at Bournemouth because he wasn’t “in the right frame of mind” it seemed a total given that he was on his way.

All the indications today were that the Chinese had come in with an improved offer and the grapevine was declaring that Maxi Gomez would be brought in before the end of the window to replace Marko.

Instead the Austrian has made it crystal clear he’s staying declaring in his statement that he wants to help lead the Irons as high up the table as he can.

The more cynical may feel that this could be a face saving exercise after the Chinese failed to budge from their initial €40 million initial offer.

However, none of us will be unduly worried by that and are likely to  forgive and forget the man after today’s Instagram statement.