West Ham United look like a totally different team to the one that struggled earlier on in the season.
West Ham United’s Winston Reid in action
Hammers centre-back Winston Reid sat down for an exclusive interview with the club’s official website, and discussed the affect that Dimitri Payet’s departure had on the squad as a whole.
Slaven Bilic’s side have managed to turn their season around over the last two months, winning six and drawing one of their last 10 Premier League outings, and they now find themselves sitting comfortably in the top half of the table, just nine points adrift of seventh placed Everton.
Many fans and pundits alike attributed West Ham’s turnaround in fortunes to Payet’s exit from the club.
And the manner in which some of the Hammers players have flourished in the absence of the Marseille man certainly lends credence to that notion.
Reid offered a carefully worded reply, however, when asked if the Frenchman leaving the club led to a more unified feeling amongst the squad, as quoted by WHUFC.com:
“I don’t want to pinpoint the whole situation on Dimi, because I think that would be unfair. He had his own issue which he had to deal with in his own way, which he did, and we’re past that now. He’s happy and we’re happy as well, so we’ll just move forward and do our best.”
Olympique Marseille’s Dimitri Payet
The Hammers squad have been enjoying a mid-season warm weather training camp in Dubai over the past few days, and will be hoping to return to action next weekend against Watford refreshed both mentally and physically.
And if they can pick up a victory at Vicarage Road, there will be genuine optimism that they can make a push for the final Europa League spot over the remainder of the campaign.
West Ham United’s Winston Reid in action
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