West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini has said that he is aiming to keep Marko Arnautovic at the London Stadium this season despite reports of a huge bid from an unnamed Chinese club.
It was reported throughout the last few days that a considerable bid had been lodged for the services of the Austrian international, with a contract worth approximately £200,000 per week on offer to the forward.
Despite that, Pellegrini has said he is desperate to keep Arnautovic at the club throughout the winter transfer window, but did concede that the Hammers could be forced to sell him in the future.
“Those are all rumours,” Pellegrini said. “We know we have a very good player in Marko, a lot of clubs may want him to play for them. At the moment we have no news about him.
“I don’t want to talk about things that might happen. Marko in this moment is a player of our team, players of his quality and other players like Declan Rice, Felipe Anderson, other clubs will want them but that is one thing. I don’t think they will go.
“I want to keep him, of course, but you never know what might happen in the future.”
Arnautovic has made 52 appearances and scored 19 goals since moving from Stoke City in July 2017. He has already hit seven Premier League goals this season and is at 200/1 with Paddy Power to be named top scorer at the end of the campaign.
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