Stoke City fear they will lose Mark Arnautovic in the summer despite tabling a bumper contract that would make the forward the club’s best-paid player of all-time.
Arnautovic, 27, has enjoyed the most prolific season of his career and his performances have reportedly courted interest from Paris Saint-Germain.
Mark Hughes’ side are understandably keen to get the Austria international to commit his future to the club and want to clear the £12.5m buy-out clause in his current contract.
Stoke chief executive Tony Scholes has revealed Arnautovic has no intent on signing a new deal, with his current deal due to expire in just over 12 months time.
“I would love to appear more knowledgeable than anyone else on this. But the truth it it’s in Marko’s hands,” Scholes told The Daily Mirror.
“And at the moment, the decision he’s taken is that he doesn’t want to sign yet. He’s not out of contract for another year, albeit there is a release clause in his contract.
“We hope he will sign, but as I sit here now I can’t give you a definitive answer on that.”
Only January signing Giannelli Imbula (7.07) secured a higher WhoScored.com rating in the Premier League for Stoke than their top goalscorer Arnautovic (7.05).
For more stats on Marko Arnautovic, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
