West Ham star Dimitri Payet was so good last season that he left everybody wondering just why it took so long for him to make a move on to the big stage. It’s only been a year, but now we know.
Dimitri Payet was one of the standout players in his debut Premier League last season last year. West Ham United signed the attacking midfielder from Ligue 1 outfit Marseille for what looks a meager fee of around £10 million.
Payet shone like few others in the 2015-16 season and even carried his form into Euro 2016, with France making it to the final of the competition on home soil. Payet finished Euro 2016 with three goals and two assists.
His Premier League campaign saw the Frenchman produce nine goals and 12 assists. He was West Ham’s talisman. In just one year, Dimitri Payet became the face of the club. And his incredible year saw everybody asking themselves the same questions.
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How long can West Ham keep him for? Why is he not already at a top club? And why is he only just getting his big break at 28 years of age? Well, with 2017 barely up and running, now everybody has the answer.
Dimitri Payet has suddenly decided he does not want to play for West Ham anymore. The club that gave him that break a year ago. The club which gave him the most lucrative contract in the club’s history.
And the club that gave him the platform to earn himself – for a huge fee, of course – a move to the biggest club that he could possibly attract. All of that goes out of the window, though, now Payet has decided he would like to leave.
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No back and forth discussions, no mutual respect, no cordial requests. Just, I want out and I want out today. This selfish attitude is the reason why no other top club has signed Payet before now. On talent alone, the 29-year-old could play for any team in the world. But he doesn’t.
With all due respect to West Ham, he plays for, at best, a mid-table club in the Premier League. Now he’s angling for a move back to a lesser league and to re-join a team that have no realistic ambitions of winning anything major themselves: Marseille.
Not Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain. Not even Tottenham or Atletico Madrid. But Marseille. What does that tell you about the player’s motivation and ambitions?
And that’s really the best part of it because, no ambition? Okay. Or homesick, perhaps? Fine. It happens. But there is a way to negotiate a move away from a club. Refusing to ever train or play again is absolutely not one of them.
If Payet had gone about things the right way, with respect, maybe the club and the Hammers fans would have been more willing to at least listen to his calls for a move. Maybe they would have been more understanding if he was indeed homesick.
But the attitude Payet did take just shows the selfishness that turned bigger clubs off. The attitude that turned bigger clubs away. And now, a player that should be being fought over by the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea, is now being fought over by West Ham and Marseille.
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In 2017, top clubs scout more than just the magic in your feet. They’re looking at what’s going on in your head. Your Character. Attitude. The ability to be a good teammate, not a bad apple. A club like West Ham, this is the only way they can get a player like Payet. By taking a chance on a guy with a questionable character traits.
The top clubs? They don’t have to take that chance. They just shop elsewhere instead. Which is why Dimitri Payet is where he is right now and not where he should be.