The star of the show at Upton Park last season, Dimitri Payet is cutting a bit more of a dejected figure this season, mostly because West Ham aren’t doing as well, currently 13th in the table, 17 points behind sixth placed Manchester United.
Losing to José Mourinho’s side on Monday only added to the club’s poor start to the season, and rumours about the Frenchman leaving the London Stadium have redoubled, with an unlikely return to Marseille picking up some pace across the Channel.
Making it clear the Ligue 1 club held a special place in his heart, the attacking midfielder also refused to dismiss a potential return to the Stade Vélodrome in the future, and even said he would be keeping an eye on the new project in the south of France.
France Football on Tuesday report that Marseille are very interested in bringing their former star back to the club, and have studied a variety of options as to how they can get that done.
Selling him for a measly €15m, the Ligue 1 side are said to be ready to pay €30-40m for Payet, yet if they can include a player and reduce the amount instead, they’d happily do that.
The two players they’d be ready to include in a deal are either Romain Alessandrini or Bouna Sarr, both wingers, and both used sparingly by Rudi Garcia since his arrival.
Of course, for this to happen, West Ham would have to be interested in at least one of the forwards, and, so far, there’s very little pointing towards that being the case.
As for Payet, France Football say he’s ‘passionately interested’ by the new project at his former club.
The French magazine even go as far as wishing West Ham ‘good luck’ in trying to keep the player.
We’ll see about that.
