West Ham United have been doing very well for themselves in the summer transfer market this season as after bringing Joe Hart in on loan from Man City, and seemingly being on the verge of taking Javier Hernandez back to the Premier League, they have broken their transfer record to sign Marko Arnautovic from Stoke City.
The potential £24million deal will raise eyebrows for some, but in the modern market it can only really be seen as the Hammers strengthening their options, and for the player himself he was very keen to move to London and be a part of the project going forward.
Read the full story on Marko Arnautovic's arrival here!#COYI https://t.co/NOLY8lJCuX
— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) July 22, 2017
But it won't be easy for the Austrian, as that price tag will come with a level of expectation, and that was something his former teammate Charlie Adam pointed out as confirmation of the transfer came through.
Speaking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on Talksport, Adam warned Arnautovic that he will need to pull up his socks regarding his defensive duties if he wants the fans to warm to him.
He will need to improve because he’s going to be the record signing, and the West Ham fans, they won’t take anything.
They won’t take him not tracking back, covering the full-back, helping his own full-back – they will be on him so he’ll have to improve.
Maybe at our place he can get away with it a little bit because going forward he’s a match winner and coming to a team like West Ham they need someone like that.
He’s got the talent to go play for one of the big ones but he’s going to West Ham because sometimes going back the way he doesn’t do as well as he should do.
Slightly cheeky from Adam regarding the timing, we can't imagine Arnautovic would be too happy with that assessment.
That said, the Scot is probably right. West Ham were let down last season by their creative players, in particular by Dimitri Payet deciding he hated England halfway through the season, so they will be expecting to see improvements this time out.
