“He was our Neymar” – Coach recalls player’s West Ham exit, was “very important” for Hammers for two years

If there’s one player that has divided West Ham United fans over the past few years, it’s Dimitri Payet.

The attacking midfielder arrived at London Stadium with a lot of hype, and he delivered almost immediately, quickly becoming a fan favourite with his free-kicks and general technical ability.

Songs were written and sung, and joy was aplenty in London for a while, until Payet decided he wanted to return to the south of France and move back to Marseille.

Slaven Bilic was the West Ham manager at the time, and things turned a bit ugly, as the player tried to force an exit, which he eventually got.

This left a sour taste in the mouths of the fans, but there’s no denying what the player brought to the Hammers during his time there on the pitch.

This is what Nikola Jurcevic, assistant to Bilic, likes to focus on when discussing the player with La Provence’s podcast, where he was asked about the France international’s time at West Ham.

He said: “The English league is physically very tough and in the Premier League, you don’t see a lot of players with the technique and imagination of Dimitri Payet. Fans recognised his ability. They recognised that he was giving a lot for West Ham and they made a song for him.

“This showed that Payet was very important for West Ham and very important for the fans. They were two years with real success, two years where Payet was the best player at West Ham. All the clubs loved him, but for personal reasons, he wanted to change club and go to Marseille.

“He was our Neymar. We spoke about him many times with Slaven. We thought he had the qualities to play in all the great clubs like Manchester United, Manchester City or Chelsea. In all the great clubs in Europe. He absolutely had the qualities, but he adored Marseille. It was his club, his town.”