Marko Arnautovic has submitted a transfer request after Stoke City rejected a £15million bid from West Ham United.

The 28-year-old Austrian has emerged as one of West Ham’s prime targets and is greatly admired by their manager Slaven Bilic. It remains to be seen how hard he now pushes for a move away from Stoke.

Arnautovic held talks with Stoke manager Mark Hughes last week when he informed him of his desire to leave and has now put that in writing.

Stoke do not want to sell Arnautovic, who is contracted until 2020, but are braced for an improved offer of around £20million from West Ham and may have to let him go.

Peter Coates, the Stoke chairman, said: "We have received a bid from West Ham for Marko and it was turned down.

"Mark is planning to meet with the player and hopefully he can find a positive resolution, as he did last year.

"We will only sell Marko if the terms are right but he's not a player we want to lose."

West Ham co-chairman David Gold has already publically stated that the club’s main targets this summer are a centre-forward and a forward who can play wide and Arnautovic is regarded as a key part of a re-shaped front-line.