Marko Arnautovic Apologises to Fans for Underwhelming Start to Life at West Ham United
Marko Arnautovic offered West Ham United fans a blunt apology for his performance's during the first three months of the season on Sunday afternoon after picking up the club's Player of the Year award.
The Austria international arrived at the London Stadium last summer with expectations high following his club-record £25m switch from Stoke City; however, struggled to deliver under Slaven Bilic.
But following the Croatian's sacking in November and the appointment of David Moyes until the end of the season, the 29-year-old finally began to show his true ability - going on to finish the season with 11 goals and six assists as well as playing an instrumental role in the Hammers' survival.
However, despite netting West Ham's second in their 3-1 campaign-closing win over Everton on Sunday, Arnautovic felt the need to apologise to the fans who had stuck by him even though his showings were below par in the early months.
"I want to apologise for the first three months, but then I worked hard and gave everything," the attacker said to the London Stadium crowd following his side's victory, as quoted by football.london's Sam Inkersole on Twitter.
Whether more should be read into the player's remarks, given his admittance of maybe not pushing himself to the limits during the first few months of the season, remains up for debate, yet boss David Moyes has been more than impressed with the frontman since his arrival.
"Look at times he [Arnautovic] can be unplayable," the Scot told Sky Sports after the Everton win. "When we came in, we were in the bottom three, and we've ended up in 13th so I would have taken that all day long, that's for sure."
