Marko Arnautovic

[Batman]

What a shit cameo. I remember though he contributed to Samuel’s winning goal against Siena.

 

[RotterdamNerazzurri]

What are our ambitions for this year, and many years to come after? fuck this… fuck this mercato, we were cl finalist, this cant be real

Top-4. Forget about the Scudetto. We should all do that. IMO it will be a miracle if we make it to top-4 this year.

 

[Matrix_invincible]

Welcome back god of football, welcome back. you ll prove all the fools here wrong.

 

[CafeCordoba]

i dont think so. Transfer fee 10 million (or 8+2), salary 3 million net, 5 gross.

his annual fee is around 10 million in books Dzeko had only salary, with something 9-10 million.


Fun fact, 2 years ago, Bologna bought him for 6 (!!) million, now, 2 years older with half season injury, we pay for him 10 million

There are conflicting reports on his salary but Sky reports the salary is 2m net and with the tax reduction that means 2.6m gross.

10m transfer fee is split over two years so annual cost is 5m. Thus the total annual cost is 7.6m which is cheaper than Dzeko's 9m+ total cost.

Edit. As said various reports of his salary. Sky reports 2m net, Gazzetta reports 3.7m net so the variance is huge. But Gazzetta is usually full of shit lately so I'll go with Sky for now.

 

[vex]

I just know I will laugh my fuckin ass off when both him and correa are injured at the same time, and we are being forced to play lautaro thuram duo every three days. Can't wait...

 

[Tsuna]

Guys time to get hyped!! We got a treble winner on our hands

 

[qb4ever_2k]

Guys time to get hyped!! We got a treble winner on our hands

W I N N I N G M E N T A L I T Y

 

[Bergpavian]

I saw his two goals against Vaduz in a friendly in the stadium ... Since then (Nov. 14th 2009) I knew he will be an important part of our team.

Edit: That team. Lol.

 

[Hikonyán]

Edit. As said various reports of his salary. Sky reports 2m net, Gazzetta reports 3.7m net so the variance is huge. But Gazzetta is usually full of shit lately so I'll go with Sky for now.

All sources says he was earning 2,7m€ net at Bologna already (+300k more net as a loyalty bonus that took effect during the previous season according to GdS).

I cant imagine he took a net paycut of about 1m€ to move here with 2 years left on his Bologna contract.

 

[DiegoMilito22]

Welcome back god of football, welcome back. you ll prove all the fools here wrong.

God of football?

 

[snowforum180]

If this is our last transfer of the summer I pray for the future of this club.

Panic buy from our management….

 

[Ares]

He's Dzeko replacement, so for me it’s a good substitute for him.
Arnautovic is a solid choice as an experienced striker, the real problem is Korea that should be sold and the money reinvested in a good player, obviously adding a cash part.
But at 34 years old a player is not finished, unless you are asking him 50 games per season, from what I've seen in the last season he's having his peak in performances right now so it's good to have him as option but not as a starter.
I would say that as long as we try to sign another CF before mercato ends or at least in the winter session I'm happy with this swap.

 

[Universe]

You can't compare Dzeko to Arnautovic. Dzeko had pedigree that Arnautovic couldn't even dream of. His career and legacy is 20x that of Arnautovic.

Dzeko spent over 10 years in big clubs competing for and winning trophies, playing at the highest level of competition, while Arnautovic is a failed talent who fucked off to China in his "prime" to collect an easy payday.

More importantly, Dzeko was actually an elite player for the vast majority of his career. A former world-class footballer. Arnautovic has never been anything more than mediocre. So, we're effectively replacing a former world class player for a former mediocre player. What is anyone even expecting here?



For me the biggest issue with Arnautovic is what the transfer signals.

Six weeks ago on July 1, we signed Thuram and our strike force of Lautaro, Thuram and Correa was assembled.

At this stage our management clearly decided this strikeforce was not sufficient. In fact, they decided it was so insufficient that we strategically sacrificed our highly rated goalkeeper to fund an expensive forward reinforcement and agreed a €40m deal for Lukaku.

As we know, the second half of that operation didn't end up happening, though we still sold Onana for the purposes of financing an important striker. Fast forward a few weeks and we've flirted with Balogun, with reports claiming Ausilio is "in love" with the player. We had concrete interest in Morata before he renewed with Atletico. We actually had the Scamacca deal 99% completed for €28m - which is big money by our standards. We seemingly had concrete interest in Taremi as well despite Porto wanting €30m.

All this indicates that despite Plan A (Lukaku) falling through, the general plan to use the Onana money for a starting striker was still in place.

So... what's changed? Our strikeforce still consists of Lautaro, Thuram and Correa. 6 weeks ago, management looked at this trio and said, "This is shit. We need a big signing and we're even willing to sell Onana to make it happen..."

Did they change their minds? Did they suddenly decide that Lautaro, Thuram and Correa was good enough after all?

It's not a question of money. In that time, we signed Cuadrado for free and Sommer for €6.75m. We signed Augusto, completely financed by the Gosens sale, and loaned Audero, but the Onana money is still there. If anything we should have more money now that we're about to get a refund for Samardzic.

So what is it then? As far as I'm concerned it can only be two things:

1. They've completely fucking given up. After getting rebuffed for all the targets I listed before (Balogun, Taremi) and taking massive L's (Scamacca), it seems like they've just settled for Arnautovic - who I'm struggling to even describe as a consolation prize. It seems like Zhang allegedly interfering with and micromanaging management's completely arbitrary fluctuating budget has completely ruined whatever motivation there was to sign a real striker and they've just stopped trying.
   
   
2. They've decided to do what they always do - which is to kick the can down the road for another day. Signing Arnautovic can be seen as a "bandaid solution." Perhaps management don't like any of the options available and prefer to reassess the striker market in 12 month's time, going with a temporary solution until then.

Firstly, this raises massive concerns about the quality of recruitment if these are the only forwards they've considered within budget. It goes to show the utter lack of ingenuity and creativity towards solving problems.

Secondly, following this systematic, team-wide downgrading we've just had, who the fuck even knows what our team will look like next season? The only certainty is that it will be even worse again. This expensive debt we're carrying isn't going anywhere.

Most worryingly though, both options 1 and 2 ultimately have the same outcome - which is a complete fucking surrendering of the upcoming season. Both reasons result in us accepting that this is another season as passengers, aiming for no more than top 4 and to make some money from CL revenue and player sales.

If that's the goal here, there are much better ways to do it than buying Arnautovic for literally TWICE his fucking market value.

 

[NimAraya]

I think people are only comparing Arna to Dzeko because they're both tall and old. I see no other similarities.

 

[Dave54]

I think people are only comparing Arna to Dzeko because they're both tall and old. I see no other similarities.

We actually saving on Arna compared to Dzeko's wages. and he is 3 years younger. Not an ideal deal, but here we are.

 

[qb4ever_2k]

I think people are only comparing Arna to Dzeko because they're both tall and old. I see no other similarities.

How are they different though? If you're looking for a Dzeko's replacement, Arnautovic is as close as you get. Tall strong and technically solid target man.

Dzeko was on his last leg since the first day he came, you clearly saw his body was expensed and he had to rely on his experience and skill to compensate but only to a certain extent. But if you watch Arnautovic, you don't get that vibe, he's still able to hustle for every ball, he can throw himself to rough challenges and tackles, he also doesn't lose a 30m race vs defenders when he has a head start. All in all, I find Arnautovic still capable physically, and that's why I expect him to be more useful than Dzeko for the next 2 years.

 

[sdvroot]

How are they different though? If you're looking for a Dzeko's replacement, Arnautovic is as close as you get. Tall strong and technically solid target man.

Dzeko was on his last leg since the first day he came, you clearly saw his body was expensed and he had to rely on his experience and skill to compensate but only to a certain extent. But if you watch Arnautovic, you don't get that vibe, he's still able to hustle for every ball, he can throw himself to rough challenges and tackles, he also doesn't lose a 30m race vs defenders when he has a head start. All in all, I find Arnautovic still capable physically, and that's why I expect him to be more useful than Dzeko for the next 2 years.

All this on one condition, if he's not in the infirmary with Sensi and Correa.

 

[qb4ever_2k]

All this on one condition, if he's not in the infirmary with Sensi and Correa.

Last year was a rough year for him but he has been fine in term of fitness over his career, no serious injuries to his ligaments/tendons/cartilages/meniscus...

Injury risk is always there, you can have a good record with injury only to fuck your knee in the first few games in preseason like Nkunku or Timber, but Arnautovic will most likely be fine.

 

[dax21]

All this indicates that despite Plan A (Lukaku) falling through, the general plan to use the Onana money for a starting striker was still in place.

So... what's changed?

I'm certain it's one of two things... either 40m was a bullet we were only willing to bite for Lukaku and Lukaku alone as an exception - we all know that Zhang is personally very fond of the player. Even if it meant some fire sale in January in order to make sure we are good on our loan which must be repaid before next summer mercato even starts.

Or... and this is likely more probable: we were never that committed to the sum of 40m, in spite of what was written in the media. Look at how long the Sommer tug of war went on and that was for measly amount of ~1m. I'm absolutely assured that we would still be negotiating with Chelsea to this date if Lukaku didn't cause the whole drama. We would haggle for every single euro and count on the player wanting only Inter. Every single transfer since implies and supports this theory.

 

[ChillBro]

I'm certain it's one of two things... either 40m was a bullet we were only willing to bite for Lukaku and Lukaku alone as an exception - we all know that Zhang is personally very fond of the player. Even if it meant some fire sale in January in order to make sure we are good on our loan which must be repaid before next summer mercato even starts.

Or... and this is likely more probable: we were never that committed to the sum of 40m, in spite of what was written in the media. Look at how long the Sommer tug of war went on and that was for measly amount of ~1m. I'm absolutely assured that we would still be negotiating with Chelsea to this date if Lukaku didn't cause the whole drama. We would haggle for every single euro and count on the player wanting only Inter. Every single transfer since implies and supports this theory.

it's the 2nd...100%.

proof is in the pudding. They haven't and won't spend that some anywhere else. They could have spent that money on RCB or on GK or on another forward (they really don't think anyone in the world is available in the $30-$40mm range?) - but they have not and will not.