David Ginola has revealed that West Ham’s Dimitri Payet “could have been a Spurs player” had chairman Daniel Levy taken his advice a few years ago.
The France international joined the Hammers from Marseille over the summer in a £10.75m deal and has been a massive hit in the east of London.
Payet’s seven goals and five assists in Premier League action have seen him emerge as the focal point of Slaven Bilic’s new-look Irons unit, and even led to suggestions that an unknown team in China was willing to pay £38m for him earlier this month.
The 28-year-old has since penned a new contract with West Ham and appears to be settled at club, but speaking to talkSPORT, Ginola revealed that he recommended the attacking midfielder to his old club, Spurs, a few years ago:
“I had a discussion one night with Spurs players, former players and chairman Daniel Levy about French players coming through and who would be good [for Tottenham].
“And I said, ‘well there’s one out there right now, Dimitri Payet.’ This was a few years ago when he was still playing at Lille, and I told him Payet would suit English football.
“I’m not surprised to see him being successful at West Ham. He had a good spell at Marseille when he left Lille, but it wasn’t the best of Dimitri we saw. He’s improved since he signed for West Ham but his very best is yet to come.
“But he could have been a Spurs player.
“I saw in him the flair you associate with Tottenham players, the flair game of Spurs’ history. Dimitri Payet was fitting pretty well in that image of what a Spurs player should be.
“It’s amazing to see him playing so well and I’m just pleased to see I wasn’t wrong. I was absolutely right to see him as a great asset for English football.”
Payet was Ligue 1’s most creative player last season with a stunning 16 assists for l’OM.
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