West Ham emerged from Dimitri Payet saga with best possible deal, says Thierry Henry
Tuesday 31 January 2017 16:27, UK
Thierry Henry believes West Ham have got the best possible deal out of the complicated Dimitri Payet departure.
Payet completed a £25m move back to Marseille on Sunday after he had refused to play for the Hammers again as the France international tried to engineer the move back to the south of France.
Such a saga did not sit well with Hammers fans, who voiced their anger at Payet's actions, but Henry insists that Payet will have had his reasons, and feels the club have actually made the best out of a bad situation.
"I don't know why he actually wanted to leave," Henry told Sky Sports News HQ. "We have to respect his decision in a way, because it must have been something very important for him to have wanted to leave. I thought that he was comfortable at West Ham.
"If I were [Slaven] Bilic, I would just do what is best for the team, but Payet had to do what was right for him to move forward.
"Sometimes it doesn't look right, if you are a West Ham fan, you are upset. You do not know what it is going on in his [Payet's] head.
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"When a club wants a player to leave the club, he is out, that's it. You don't hear people complain, feeling sorry for the player.
"You [the manager] have to do whatever it takes to keep your team in order. The boss has to deal with the team first, not the player.
"People will say that Payet has the power, but then I go back to the club. West Ham have won at the end of the day."
Sky Sports' Jamie Redknapp feels that Payet had in fact not hit the heights of last season, and the Hammers won't feel his loss as much because of his below-par showings this campaign.
"He owes me an apology as I bought my two kids Payet shirts in the summer!" Redknapp added. "He gave West Ham an amazing year last year, but for some reason his head was turned.
"He has not reached anything like the levels that he reached last year, his head isn't in it and he wants to go.
"It is also best for West Ham. He is not a young player. The way he has done it is completely wrong but that's football."
