West Ham’s resolve to keep Marko Arnautovic has been tested by a €40m (£35.2m) offer from Guangzhou Evergrande.

The Premier League club are furious with Arnautovic over behaviour that has led to the striker being dropped for the game at Bournemouth and apologising to his teammates, but are likely to hold out for a third bid from the Chinese Super League side, who had previously offered €35m.

West Ham will also not sell Arnautovic unless they get the green light from Manuel Pellegrini and find a replacement. The manager is deciding whether he would like the Austrian to go after omitting him for Saturday’s match because he felt the player was not in the right frame of mind having been denied a move.

With Genoa’s Krzysztof Piatek set to join Milan once Gonzalo Higuaín completes his loan to Chelsea and Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson likely to prove out of reach, West Ham are expected to step up their interest in Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gómez. The 22-year-old Uruguayan has a £45m release clause and is regarded as one of the brightest young forwards in Spain. However Celta are reluctant to lose Gómez as they battle against relegation from La Liga.

Arnautovic said sorry to the rest of West Ham’s squad after training on Friday for pushing for a move. Pellegrini concluded that Arnautovic’s desperation to accept a lucrative offer from Guangzhou had affected his focus. The club remain unhappy with the disruption before an important Premier League game and one source rated Arnautovic’s chances of staying at 50-50.

The player’s conduct has not extended to going on strike nor resulted in him being ostracised by his teammates, even though they will be without him against Eddie Howe’s side. They understand his reasons for wanting to leave and appreciated him apologising about the circumstances that have led to his absence against Bournemouth. They will not protest if the 29-year-old stays at West Ham.

Arnautovic has not hidden his desire to move to China and has grown increasingly unhappy with his club’s stance. It has been reported that Shanghai SIPG, the CSL champions, lodged the original €35m bid. They have shown an interest in Arnautovic yet the Guardian has been told by sources on both sides of the deal that Guangzhou were the real bidders and were Arnautovic’s preferred destination. The deal would have meant the former Stoke striker standing to earn £40m over a four-year contract, a large upgrade on his West Ham wage of £90,000 a week.

West Ham felt that Guangzhou’s offer was far too low given that Stoke have a sell-on clause that would entitle them to 20% of any fee over £20m.

Arnautovic’s mood has not improved since he appeared to wave goodbye to the crowd after being substituted during last week’s home win over Arsenal and, although he has trained this week, Pellegrini does not want any distractions against Bournemouth. Andy Carroll, Javier Hernández and Lucas Pérez are in contention to replace Arnautovic. Another option available to Pellegrini is to push Michail Antonio into a forward role.