West Ham United seem to be a far more unified team now that Dimtri Payet has left the club.
West Ham legend Sir Geoff Hurst
Hammers legend Sir Geoff Hurst sat down with the Evening Standard for an exclusive interview, and offered his take on the recent Dimitri Payet situation at West Ham, labelling the Frenchman a ‘prima donna’, whilst suggesting that the £25 million the club received for his services was very good business indeed.
The 29-year-old behaved disgracefully, as far as the majority of West Ham fans were concerned, with his refusal to play for Slaven Bilic culminating in him being banished from the first-team squad, and forced to train with the youth team.
He eventually left the East London outfit on the penultimate day of the January transfer window, moving to Ligue 1 side and former club Marseille in a deal believed to be in the region of £25 million.
And Hurst explained why the France international’s exit from the London Stadium was the best outcome for all parties concerned, when speaking to the Evening Standard, whilst praising the Hammers for the manner in which they dealt with the situation on the whole:
Olympique Marseille’s latest recruit Dimitri Payet
“West Ham handled it well by not trying to keep it under lock and key. It needed to be sorted, talked about and dealt with. As far as I can see it has been dealt with very well by the club. It always looked like they’d get £25m for him, that’s not too bad a deal at all considering we paid £10m for him. More importantly the unity of the team has proven the most important thing.In one sense it’s sad to lose him but no matter how good you are if you behave like a prima donna and don’t want to play it’s no great loss.”
Bilic’s side currently sit in 10th position in the Premier League table, just nine points adrift of seventh placed Everton, and if they can continue to perform in the manner in which they have been over the past couple of months, a place inside the Europa League spots will surely start to seem like a realistic target for them.
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic
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