West Ham captain Mark Noble believes the transfer speculation regarding the likes of Marko Arnautovic during the January window had a negative impact on the squad.
Writing in his column for the Evening Standard, Noble stated how relieved he was now the January window has closed and believes the Hammers endured another “unsettling” first month of the year.
West Ham went into the New Year having won five of their previous seven games in the league, but the Hammers have won just one game in the league since the turn of the year and crashed out of the FA Cup, losing 4-2 to League One’s AFC Wimbledon.
And Noble believes the uncertain future of a number of West Ham players during January had a negative effect on the squad.
As with the Dimitri Payet situation a couple of years ago, this window has been thoroughly unsettling for West Ham. Of course the Marko Arnautovic speculation became the centre of attention but, in fact, every one of our strikers has been linked with possible moves in the past couple of weeks. That has to have an effect on everyone, not just the players concerned but all the squad.
Arnautovic had been the subject of a £35million bid from China which led to the striker reportedly seeking a move away from the London Stadium, while a number of clubs were said to be interested in Andy Carroll and Javier Hernandez was linked with a move to La Liga.
Though Noble believes the window had an negative effect on the squad, West Ham’s skipper did not want to use that as an excuse for their poor form.
I’m not making any excuses for our past two performances but it must have an adverse effect.
