He has been one of West Ham United’s stand out players so far this season, but incredibly for such a signing, Dimitri Payet has said he was forced out of his old club Marseille.
Having watched Payet’s performances for West Ham this season it comes as a surprise that the 28-year-old was a player Marseille were trying to get rid of, but does that mean he has a troublesome side? Not likely.
Payet signed for Slaven Bilic’s West Ham for a reported £10m and that now looks like fantastic work by the Croatian as the Frenchman has proved a revelation in east London.
The work and creativity he gives West Ham has made the club an attracting proposition when it comes to football betting as their capabilities of causing an upset were shown on the opening day of the season and continued with 2 more great scalps on the road. It’s worth having a bet with Betway on West Ham to win again this weekend, such is their great form at the moment.
The Emirates Stadium looked as tough a place as any to go for the first game of the campaign but Payet was fantastic, delivering an assist as West Ham took a stunning victory over Arsenal. A goal against Leicester helped endear him to fans, despite it coming on the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline, and a brace against Newcastle at Upton Park was even better.
The performances so far have had fans chanting Payet’s name loudly, but he says the new Financial Fair Play rules ultimately pushed him out the door at Marseille, luckily for West Ham.
“At the end, yes,” Payet told French newspaper L’Equipe when quizzed on whether he was forced to depart. “The president said that I was not going to be leaving. I was part of a list of players that Marcelo (Bielsa, manager) wanted to keep.”
“But as the meeting with the DNCG (National Directorate of Management Control) got closer, the more I felt that I was going to be asked to leave. As the other transfers, like that of Imbula and Thauvin, were lagging.”
It almost reads like one of those fateful moments, and in Dimitri Payet West Ham seem to have a fantastic Premier League player on their hands. They may have been able to sign him for such a price due to fortuitous circumstances but it’s something neither Slaven Bilic, West Ham or any fan cares about now.
