Marko Arnautovic claims he rejected the chance to swap Stoke City for Everton.
It’s genuinely difficult to comprehend whether or not Marko Arnautovic would have been a successful signing for Everton, as reported by The Sun.
On one hand, the Stoke City winger is capable of moments of sheet, explosive quality, as demonstrated by his thunderbolt finish in last week’s 3-1 victory over Hull City.
On the other, Arnautovic often follows up inspiration with moments of infuriating wastefulness. Moments after crashing that lethal strike off the underside of Eldin Jakupovic’s bar, he dragged horribly wide when one on one.
Nonetheless, the Austrian international insists that he could be playing a starring role in Ronald Koeman’s ambitious Everton side, had he not been so loyal to Stoke City.
“Ronald Koeman tried to persuade me to move to Everton. Romelu Lukaku also phoned me to ask if I would join them, and I found that a great honour,” Arnautovic said in quotes reported by The Sun.
“[But] Stoke took me on, and my career took off with them. I thought to myself – it’s a place where everything suits me, so why not stay put?”
Stoke, as Arnautovic states, have certainly placed a lot of faith in a player once described by Jose Mourinho as a ‘child’ during their time at Inter Milan.
And after improving in each of his four seasons in The Potteries, it’s fair to say he has repaid their faith with interest.
However, it appears that the majority of Everton fans won’t be losing too much sleep about missing out on the reformed ‘bad boy’. He’s good but he may not be good enough.
@EvertonBlueArmy I guess you like bottom half finishes then. No ambition from this mark.
— USM Brad Minoski (@BradleyMinoski) April 24, 2017
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