Marko Arnautović: Man Utd target once accused of "disrupting" West Ham Women training | OneFootball

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·8 August 2022

Marko Arnautović: Man Utd target once accused of "disrupting" West Ham Women training

Article image:Marko Arnautović: Man Utd target once accused of "disrupting" West Ham Women training

Manchester United transfer target Marko Arnautović was once accused of being ‘disrespectful’ to the women’s team at West Ham.

With Anthony Martial currently injured and Cristiano Ronaldo’s future in doubt, Manchester United are looking for more options up front.


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The Red Devils are rumoured to be chasing former West Ham and Stoke forward Arnautović, with Sky Italy reporting that Bologna rejected a bid of around €9m (£7.6m) for the 33-year-old.

Manchester United fans have not been left enthused by the news, and women’s team supporters have voiced concerns about Arnautović’s behaviour in the past.

Back in 2019, former West Ham star Claire Rafferty told talkSPORT that Arnautović had been “disrespectful” to the women’s team.

She claimed his attitude was the reason West Ham allowed the Austrian striker to move to Shanghai SIPG in July 2019.

Article image:Marko Arnautović: Man Utd target once accused of "disrupting" West Ham Women training

“I think in the end West Ham got fed up of him – he’s got a bit of an attitude, clearly,” she said.

“In and around the training ground he’d always be quite disruptive of our training sessions when he’d walk over.

“We train in the same place [as the men’s team], but obviously on separate pitches, separated by one of the stadiums.

“On multiple occasions he was just quite disruptive and disrespectful of our training sessions.

“He’d be walking back from finishing his training and would shout over the wall and just be disrespectful.

Rafferty continued: “Bearing in mind we were doing tactical work, it’s a total disregard for what we’re doing; there’s no way in hell any of us would do that during one of their training sessions.

“I think that’s just him, he’s clearly quite a boisterous character and is quite outspoken.”

Article image:Marko Arnautović: Man Utd target once accused of "disrupting" West Ham Women training

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag refused to be drawn on whether the reports around Arnautović were true, so it remains to be seen whether they should be of concern to fans of the women’s team.

With the Women’s Super League season getting underway on September 10th, Manchester United Women will be aiming to finally improve on their fourth-place finish from the past three seasons.

The Red Devils have failed to break the dominance of Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal since joining the WSL in 2019, but they will be hoping to change that this season.

As a result, the team have been very active in the transfer window, signing Nikita Parris, Maya Le Tissier, Lucia Garcia, Rachel Williams, Grace Clinton and Adriana Leon so far.

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