West Ham are ready to sell wantaway forward Marko Arnautovic for £45million and break their club record transfer fee to sign Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gomez as a replacement.
Arnautovic, 29, has been axed from the squad for the FA Cup fourth-round trip to Wimbledon on Saturday night as he chases his lucrative transfer to China.
Gomez, the 22-year-old who has scored nine goals in La Liga this season, has a £43.3m release clause which would eclipse the £36m paid for Felipe Anderson.
Arnautovic, who was also dropped for last weekend’s Premier League game against Bournemouth because of concerns over his frame of mind, wrote on Instagram on Friday night: ‘News very soon…’
It is understood no £45m bid has come in for Arnautovic but insiders are confident a deal can be struck to sell the Austrian, likely to Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande.
Shanghai SIPG have also been heavily linked.
Arnautovic has been training this week and Pellegrini had claimed he was working well. There is understood to have been a breakdown in trust between the two, however.