On June 24th, a remarkable piece of news spread quickly in Beijing time: the transfer drama of former Harbour forward Arnautovic has finally come to an end, and he has officially joined Bologna. The two sides signed a three-year contract, with Arnaud's annual salary locked at 2.7 million euros, a figure that is obviously a drastic reduction compared to his Shanghai Harbor-era salary.
In fact, the news about Arnautovic's contact with Bologna has long been reported by the Italian media several times. According to well-known Italian journalist Di Marzio, Arnautovic's termination of contract with Shanghai Harbor has entered the countdown. And recently, the Italian journalist Scilla also followed up the report, confirming the fact that Arnautovic transferred to Bologna, the two sides contract for three years, annual salary of 2.7 million euros.
Although the Harbour side has remained silent on the matter for the time being, from all indications, Arnau's transfer seems to be on the cards. With the opening of the European transfer window, an official announcement from both sides may be just around the corner.
Currently, Arnautovic is playing in the Europa League with the Austrian national team and has contributed goals. The 1989-born player joined Shanghai Gang in July 2019 for a transfer fee of £22.5 million. Arnautovic made his Chinese Super League debut on July 21 in the 19th round of the Chinese Super League, when SIPG played away to Chongqing Swai and scored.
External analysis, Arnau chose to return to Europe, on the one hand, is due to the epidemic caused by a long time can not be reunited with their families, in June this year, in Austria and Slovakia team after the warm-up match, Arnau in the press conference revealed that he was emotionally uncontrollable due to the epidemic and the separation of family members, and even shed tears. On the other hand, the Austrian national team still has the task of the World Qualification Tournament in the second half of the season, and as the mainstay of the national team, it is difficult for Arnau to juggle between the Chinese Super League and the national team tournaments, after all, entry into China requires a 21-day quarantine of preventive and control measures.
After Arnau's departure, Harbour are short of manpower in the forward line and will probably bring in a new recruit to supplement their strength. There were rumors that the new recruit was Spanish striker Diego Costa, but Harbour have made it clear that this is just a misinformation and Costa is not in their consideration.
