Dimitri Payet’s Time at West Ham has Passed. Let’s Leave Him There

Dare I say that nearly 100% of West Ham Supporters have nothing but love for Dimitri Payet’s season and a half in Claret and Blue, but that time has passed in more ways than one.

In my time following West Ham, no player has burned brighter faster, hotter or burned out quicker than the dazzling Frenchman Dimitri Payet. While he was the best thing that ever happened to former Manager Slaven Bilic, when Payet departed, it was the beginning of the end for Super Slav too.

Oh, those heady final days at Boleyn Ground as #27  carried the club up the table to their highest point total and finish in the Premiere single-handedly League Era.

But that was then; this is now.

Payet left at best under a dark cloud, at worst as a snake that the club should never have back. The Hammers faithful loved the player but didn’t love the way he left the club, and the disaster left behind in his wake took Manuel Pellegrini to finally dig out of once and for all.

Back then, Payet was a magician, and he was 29 years old. Now he is 32. He has battled injuries, and although Marseille made it to the finals of the Europa tournament last season, he made only 32 total appearances for the Club. This season, they were bounced early and finished 5th in Ligue 1 and he only made 23 starts. This is a player in decline that never once has repeated his form of 2015-16 while playing in East London, before or since. The Hammers truly caught lightning in a bottle with him.

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The transfer strategy employed by Pellegrini and Mario Husillos while at the club has been geared more towards youth, and rightfully so. They’ve only used veteran players (over 30)  on frees, and to provide squad depth and cover.  And that brings me to the next issue with a Payet return.

Back then, Payet was the first name on the team sheet.  Now, who do you play him in place of?  Filip Anderson? No. Newly signed Pablo Fornals? No.  On the right-wing taking time away from Antonio? In place of Lanzini?  With what we already know about Payet’s attitude, he is not the type of player to be used off the bench as a sub. He single-handedly destroyed club chemistry before, and using him in this way could be another recipe for disaster.  And we don’t really need more than one petulant player on the squad to deal with.

Not to mention, could you imagine the fan reaction if the Hammers actually had Payet, and then didn’t play him in the starting XI. Talk about a poisonous atmosphere surrounding the club fed by social media!

At the moment, the club is enveloped by positivity with the word being that Pellegrini wants BOTH Maxi Gomez and Solomon Rondon to join West Ham’s attack alongside Marko Arnautovic up front. That’s on the heels of what looks to be the very promising Fornals. And he has said he wants Fornals to play alongside Lanzini. So as far as we know, nobody is headed out that would make way for Dimitri Payet’s return, or open the door to playing time.

If the transfer market changes and the rumors of Arnie heading to China turn out to be true and the contact issue with Lanzini turns to an impasse, and they both leave, well those would be different circumstances than those present at the moment. But even if that DID happen, I still don’t think to add a past his prime Payet would be the answer.

A player like Payet is like an ex-girlfriend you can’t forget. The more time that passes after the break-up, the more one can only remember the good times, and not the bickering and annoying habits. In both cases, in life, and in football–the best thing to do is to move on and don’t try the “get back together” route. It will never be the same as it was before.  Those days are gone.

There is no place at West Ham for Dimitri Payet any longer.