Tony Gale says he would have sold West Ham's Marko Arnautovic

Arnautovic almost left West Ham this summer to the Chinese Premier League.

Marko Arnautovic of West Ham United smiles during training at Rush Green on January 24, 2019 in Romford, England.

Tony Gale has told Love Sport Radio that West Ham United should have sold Marko Arnautovic this month after he decided he wanted to move to the Chinese Super League.

The Mail claimed the 29-year-old had been offered an enormous £280,000 a week to play in the top tier of Chinese football, with Fabio Cannavaro’s Guangzhou Evergrande for a fee of £45million.

His brother and agent, Danijel, claimed after the interest in Arnautovic from China had become common knowledge, that his client wanted to leave the London Stadium to pursue a move to Asia.

But a move failed to go through, with West Ham proving stubborn in their asking price for the 77-time Austria international. He is now set to play for the first time since his brother’s claims, but ex-Hammer Gale says he should have been sold.

“Undoubtedly West Ham are a better team when Arnautovic plays, if he wants to play,” Gale said. “But I’d have got rid of him. It kind of brought apathy into the camp before a game like the one against Wimbledon.

“It’ll be interesting now to see what kind of reception he gets off the fans because they know that was a money-instigated move. People will be asking him now: ‘What sort of money do you want?’

“Would he rather win the FA Cup or Carabao Cup and maybe have an outside chance of getting into the Europa League, or does he want to go to China, where you can probably go when you’re about 32, and pick up a few more quid?

“I think there was a bit of greediness involved there.”