Friday's transfer roundup: Marko Arnautovic staying at West Ham as Crystal Palace deny Borussia Dortmund approach for Wilfried Zaha
All of Friday's news, gossip, rumours and done deals from the January window
Marko Arnautovic put an end to “all the writing and speculation” as the Austrian took to Twitter to confirm he will stay at West Ham this season.
The striker had been subject to lucrative bids from China and appeared to wave goodbye to supporters before insisting today that his future was with the club.
The Hammers were reported to have Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gomez lined up as a replacement and remain in talks with the Spanish side.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Roy Hodgson denied that Crystal Palace had been approached by Borussia Dortmund over Wilfried Zaha while Mauricio Pochettino confirmed Tottenham are looking at new signings.
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New Bournemouth defender Chris Mepham is relishing the prospect of testing himself against the division's top marksmen, with Mohamed Salah, Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero among his possible opponents before the end of the season.
"Since I was a little boy my dream was to play in the Premier League and I think there's no better way than to showcase it against those top players and see what you're at," he said.
"I know it's going to be very hard.
"Playing in the Championship, you come across some very good strikers, I'd imagine the step up to the Premier League's going to be 10 times harder.
"It's something I need to work hard towards but I'd love playing against people like that every week."
Ostersunds have signed Chelsea prospect Charlie Colkett. The midfielder never made a senior appearance for the Blues and leaves for Sweden for a small fee.
Bayern Munich will not let Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches leave the club this month.
The former Swansea midfielder attracted the interest of PSG, but Bayern boss Niko Kovac has firmly dismissed the possibility of any deal.
"I made it clear that Renato cannot go, even though PSG was and still is very interested," Kovac said.
"He's doing very well right now, I do not want to give him up. I know PSG has one or two midfield problems, but that's not our problem.”
Roy Hodgson has remained coy over a potential deal for Everton striker Cenk Tosun.
"I'm not prepared to talk about any individual players [like Tosun] because we could be here all afternoon if I was supposed to take notice of every player we're supposedly interested in," Hodgson said.
"We have two players coming back from long-term injuries. Connor Wickham, after two years' absence, and Christian Benteke coming back from a serious operation. We don't know how long it will take before he is back to the player we know he can be, so we don't have an awful lot of attacking options.
"So it's not surprising we're being linked with attacking players, but we do have players. A lot depends upon how it pans out with Connor and Christian in terms of their recovery."
Wantaway West Ham striker Marko Arnautovic looks to be on his way to China. This was posted to his Instagram this afternoon.
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