Written by : Emily Pulham @makingthemarrow

It’s been a trying week for West Ham United, owing to one Marko Arnautovic.

His incredibly patient and considerate brother/agent/troublemaker extraordinaire has been telling anyone who will listen that Marko is ready to leave West Ham United behind for an as yet unnamed (and lets, be honest, even it had been named the majority of Hammers fans likely wouldn’t be that familiar with it) Chinese football club.

Danijel has not been subtle about his desire for Marko to up sticks and move to Asia, and has stated that Marko “wants to go to a new market and challenge for titles. This is what he wants. It is his great desire that West Ham accept the offer from China.” Chinese football does of course hold some of the more notable, prestigious and, say, memorable titles in football, so this desire is understandable and surely nothing to do with money.

Certainly not given a reported price of £50 million and £200,000 per week. There’s no way that that meagre amount of money, ‘peanuts’ in today’s football, could play a role in his decision.

Surely not.

This disruption and indecision over Marko’s future has caused a lot of frustration with fans during the week, and left a lot of angry Hammers wondering whether or not we’ve found ourselves in another Payet-esque situation with a player who believes he’s bigger than the club. It’s particularly unhelpful in the run-up to a London derby.

The trouble is, we don’t know for sure what it is that Marko himself wishes to do, but his silence on the matter is deafening – and doing nothing to allay the fears and anger of the fans.

But does Mark owe us anything? Afterall, he’s a mercenary; not a loyal servant, and we knew that when we signed him. We saw what he did to Stoke – and we thought it was funny at the time. He’s not looking for a club for a life, an esteemed tenure, a testimonial – he’s looking for a place he can play until something better comes along, and honestly – that’s not unusual in modern football.

We knew that he wasn’t going to retire at West Ham when we signed him, but he’s played very well for us while he’s been in a claret and blue top, and did well for the club. If he wishes to leave mid-season to chase Chinese titles, it’s exceptionally disappointing – but it’s not surprising, and it isn’t really a betrayal. It’s simply a football player looking for a new opportunity and or a stunning pay check that doesn’t exist at our club – and that’s okay too.

If Marko decides to trade premier league scoring for spring rolls, then we should be thankfully for the memories he gave us, but not waste too much time crying in our cornflakes. A £50 million egg can crack into one heck of an omelette, and we’ll look to the future of the club. If he decides to stay, and perhaps take away his brother’s stirring stick, we’ll look forward to his presence on the pitch and back him as he aims to get the ball in the net.