West Ham have this morning confirmed the departure of Marko Arnautovic on WHUFC.com
A short statement on the clubs official website reads: “West Ham United can confirm that Marko Arnautovic has joined Chinese Super League champions Shanghai SIPG for an undisclosed fee. The 30-year-old Austrian departs after two seasons at London Stadium, during which he scored 22 goals in 65 appearances in Claret and Blue.”
Perhaps more telling is the lack of appreciation for his past efforts or wishing him luck in the future.
The transfer fee paid by Shanghai SIPG to West Ham will amount to 25 million Euros (£22.4m)with no add ons although they will have to pay another 25 million Euros to the Chinese Government in 100% Foreign player tax meaning the real cost to them is £44.8m.
The 30-year-old is understood to have signed a three-year contract on weekly wages around £280,000 per week.
It comes less than six months after he signed a new contract with West Ham for £120,000 per week adding a further 12 months to his deal. At that point, West Ham had rejected a €40m (£36m) bid from another Chinese club for their bad boy.
Stoke City are likely to see little of the transfer fee as the 20% sell on clause was based on profits on the £20m paid to them in 2017.
Good riddance
Perhaps an indication of the sentiment around the club that there is no “We’d like to thank Marko for his efforts and wish him all the best in his future career (that is now down a very plush toilet)”…?
Can’t say I blame them, and it’s refreshing to see, given the amount of times you see clubs ‘thanking’ players who have been paid a lot of money and caused all sorts of grief. I imagine they’re very glad to see the back of him.
Knew he was trouble from when he rolled around writhing in pain, making you think he broke a leg or ankle and it turned out he’d hurt his thumb !
One selfish, petulant, precious baby who blamed everyone but himself. Glad to see the back of him and his tantrums
The leech on the modern game also has the audacity to post a farewell thank you to the fans on Instagram.. intelligently restricting comments as we all know those wouldn’t be filled with pleasantries.
Not that the club had a huge say on the matter but at least this recent episode wasn’t dragged out into a prolonged saga hitting squad morale.. bad situation nipped in the bud
His contract at this rate of £280,000 / week for a period of 3 years is worth £43.68 m to him !
I defy anyone ( who is not a billionaire already ) in any profession or trade , to not take a deal like that .
We are in danger of losing good players ( not just from WHU but any club ) to the Chinese League!
I’ve never seen Chinese football but these top players from Europe going there must be playing alongside total muppets! Anyway, it’s great we have resolved the Marko fiasco before the season starts . In the early days he had a few great games for us and really roughed up defenders when on form .
Now to try to get a couple of decent strikers as we’re a bit short of fire power !! COrbarn.comYI ⚒⚒