French newspaper L’Equipe were the ones who first really pushed Dimitri Payet to Marseille, with two consecutive days of putting the West Ham player on their front page and giving him the following two pages as well.
The situation is the same on Friday and L’Equipe say West Ham have dealt with the situation head on. Slaven Bilic speaking to the media on Thursday and being honest will, as the French newspaper have it, ‘excite’ West Ham fans and ‘antagonise’ the player.
L’Equipe say Marseille have now offered West Ham €22m, plus €3m in bonuses which is subject to the French club qualifying for the Champions League. Marseille are currently 6th in Ligue 1, 9 points behind PSG in 3rd place, which is the lowest CL qualification place.
Even L’Equipe feel this offer to West Ham is ‘relatively low’, especially given Marseille sold the player to the Hammers for around €15m, and he’s since gone on to have a wonderful season and up his profile, and of course sign a bumper long term contract.
It’s pointed out that Payet has done this before. In 2011, when with Saint Etienne, the club refused an offer from PSG, Payet had a strop, missed two matches, and then went back to the team.
There’s huge pressure on Marseille to now put their money where their mouth has been. Payet is clearly up for it and as he and Marseille leak stories to L’Equipe and others, it’s only money that will resolve this.
