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West Ham United are set to sanction the €25m (£22.4m) departure of Marko Arnautovic to a Chinese club, believed to be Shanghai SIPG, sources have told Football FanCast.
The striker was the subject of an initial €22m (£19.7m) bid on Tuesday and asked the club to accept the offer.
West Ham stood firm, however, insisting that they expected the Austria international to honour his contract.
They have been forced into an embarrassing climbdown, though, with manager Manuel Pellegrini telling the club to sanction his sale according to FFC sources.
As recently as January, the Irons valued Arnautovic at £45m but they will now receive around half that as they look to shift a player who is regarded as a bad influence at the London Stadium.
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A highly-placed source within the club has said “we will probably let him go” and the move will go through barring any late hitches, such as Arnautovic failing a medical.
West Ham will not even make a profit on the deal, having signed the player from Stoke City for a fee of up to £25m in 2017.
Indeed, sources have told FFC that the club are aware of how poor the finances of the deal are yet they are willing to accept it as they look to move on from another saga.
This happened in 2017, too, with Dimitri Payet sold to Marseille for £25m after the France international went on strike in order to force a move.
Arnautovic has not done that but this is the second time he has asked to leave, having first attempted to engineer an exit in January.
His departure will leave the club with one senior striker in Javier Hernandez.
The Mexico international is also regarded as expendable, however, and the Hammers will likely be forced to bring in at least one forward this summer.
The club remain in talks with Maxi Gomez, the Celta Vigo striker, despite claims that he could complete a move to Valencia, while they have also tabled a bid of £10m plus two players, Jordan Hugill and Sam Byram, for West Bromwich Albion’s Salomon Rondon.