Before Manchester United decided to spend a lot of money on Antony, they were looking for a new striker in case Cristiano Ronaldo left the club.
One of the names that came up was that of Marko Arnautovic, with the Red Devils even going as far as making an offer for the Bologna player.
That didn’t really please Manchester United fans, who simply felt the club could do better than the Austrian, and articles in England emerged claiming that the Premier League side eventually pulled out of a potential transfer due to the backlash.
This was the narrative that came out on these shores, as it made the club look like they listened to what their fans were saying, but the Italian side of things was a bit different.
Just recently, Bologna’s director of football, Marco Di Vaio, gave an interview to Corriere dello Sport where he made it clear that Manchester United ‘did not back down because of those fans’.
Instead, it was because the player ‘understood that he is at the centre’ of the Serie A club’s project now and going forward.
Well, while that might be the case, Il Resto del Carlino in Italy on Wednesday have a lengthy article about the 33-year-old’s situation in Italy, as he has struggled to find the back of the net of late.
He trained separately to the group on Tuesday, claiming he had ‘lower back pain’; the same ailment he suffered from during the beginning of pre-season, around the time he was being sent left, right and centre to Juventus, before the Manchester United rumours.
Since then, Bologna have struggled, winning just six games since January, and the recent sacking of Sinisa Mihajlovic followed by the appointment of Thiago Motta hasn’t helped, with the 40-year-old overseeing two losses and a draw to date in the league.
Following the result again Sampdoria (1-1), Arnautovic even went to speak to fans, and offered some their shirt, only for it to be refused, while the manager and the team were booed.
While they aren’t questioning his injury per se, as he has a history of some physical fragility, Il Resto del Carlino do also, perhaps sarcastically, state that it might be joined by a ‘little stomach ache’.
Why? Because, other than the poor results, ‘part of his entourage has filtered a bit of regret over the past few days for not moving to Manchester’, suggesting some around him believe he should have gone to Old Trafford instead of staying in Bologna.
