"?"?Soccer News have reported that if Marko Arnautovic had never met Mario Balotelli he would currently be playing for Chelsea or Bayern Munich, in the opinion of his former agent Rob Groener.
The former manager-turned-agent Groener has said that during the pairs time together at Inter Milan, football became a secondary concern. Instead, Arnautovic and Balotelli were too focused on partying.
Groener has said that when his former client became friends with Balotelli his career deteriorated, and it is due to this period that the Austrian winger is not currently at a top club like Chelsea or Bayern Munich.
During their time together football "drove more and more into the background," although Groener added that all Arnautovic needed was a father figure to reach the levels of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Arnautovic endured a difficult game against Hungary at Euro 2016 as Austria fell to a 2-0 defeat, but the 27-year-old has had an impressive season at his current club Stoke City with 11 goals and six assists, and Groener believes that eventually he might be reaching his potential.
The winger has not been heavily linked with a move away from the Britannia this summer and perhaps it is at Stoke, where he is viewed as a key player, rather than Chelsea or Bayern Munich where he can be allowed to produce his best.
Arnautovic would be likely to struggle for game time at either of these clubs who challenge for the league on a yearly basis and therefore, despite his former agent's comments, his career is probably best served by staying with Mark Hughes at Stoke.
A short temper, inconsistency and now apparently Mario Balotelli have stunted Arnautovic's career who signed for the potters in 2013 for only £2m. Stoke will certainly hope to hold onto a man who now helps form their front-line alongside Champions League winners Bojan and Xherdan Shaqiri.