West Ham United are reportedly keen on signing the Austrian, but could his Stoke City teammate be the better option?
News broke today regarding the Hammers and their interest in Stoke forward Marko Arnautovic, with the Telegraph reporting that the east Londoners had a £15 million bid rejected for the Austrian.
The report claims that West Ham will not be deterred in their pursuit of the 28-year-old, however, and are lining up a £20 million offer – one that they believe will be enough to get a deal over the line.
Do the Hammers actually need someone like Arnautovic though? And would they not be better served by going after his teammate Xherdan Shaqiri?
Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri celebrates
The Switzerland international is as technically gifted as the Austrian ace, if not more so, and arguably possesses more of the qualities that West Ham actually need.
Following Dimitri Payet’s acrimonious exit from the club in January, Slaven Bilic has been crying out for someone with ball retention skills on par with the Frenchman’s.
The Hammers have also lost their threat from set-pieces, with the acquisition of a dead-ball specialist surely a priority for the Croatian this summer.
The signing of Shaqiri would help solve both of those issues, whereas Arnautovic doesn’t really have the skill-set needed to replace what West Ham lost when Payet left for pastures new.
Whether the east London outfit could tempt the Potters into selling the Swiss star is another matter, however, and they might very well have to make do with the Austria international.
The way that things have been going during this summer’s transfer window though, Hammers fans would most probably accept any incomings in the attacking department at the moment.
Stoke City’s Marko Arnautovic
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