The Boy's A Bit Loco: Marko Arnautovic
More about Stoke's new bad boy from Bremen...
Gary Medel has already joined Cardiff City this summer, three years after joining FFT's prestigious Loco collective, and now Arnautovic has followed suit. What next for our former Locos? Cuahtemoc Blanco to Newcastle?
Here's what we had to say about Madman Marko at the time, when he was only 22 years old...
Nutter credentials
Arnautovic’s behavioural problems saw him bounced around various clubs in Vienna for much of his youth career, before Twente gave him a home in Holland. Trouble followed as he was accused of racially abusing Willem II’s Ibrahim Kargbo, and upon moving to Bremen he won the moniker ‘Arrogantovic’ for his attitude (such as reacting to a fine with the words, “Take my money and give it to your family”).
Last year he was caught clubbing before a game, and he recently told Germany’s Kicker magazine he’s looking for a girl who is “tattooed, with black hair and silicone breasts”.
Most spectacular outburst
As Werder went down 6-0 to Stuttgart for a fourth consecutive defeat, Arnautovic thought long and hard about what to say to the TV camera - after all, Wayne Rooney's ill-judged rant about England fans in South Africa had taken place just five months previously. Composed and articulate, the Austrian looked down the lens and raged, "Werder is a dump." The locals were not amused.
They said
“Marko is a fantastic guy but he has the attitude of a child. Mario Balotelli
is his best friend: this is not easy” - Jose Mourinho on why Arnautovic played only three games in a season-long loan spell at Inter.
Words: Adam Bate. From the February 2012 issue of FourFourTwo.
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