Dimitri Payet has already established himself as one of the signings of the season.
The West Ham playmaker has excelled since his summer move from Marseille, and one of the club’s best-loved former players believes the Frenchman is already close to cult status in East London.
Trevor Sinclair, who played alongside another Hammers star in Paolo di Canio, described Payet as “different class”.
Speaking to JOE.co.uk courtesy of 888poker.com, Sinclair suggested Payet is already close to Di Canio’s level.
“He’s a player who fans will pay to go and see, he’ll get bums off seats with his vision and creativity,” Sinclair said.
“He’s already close to Paolo di Canio. It seems like he’s really level-headed and you can see he can do it away from home as well – Paolo maybe wasn’t one to produce the goods so much away from home.
“[Payet] works hard off the ball and brings more to the team. Can he be a cult figure? Fans are all over him already.”
West Ham have picked up 28 points from the 16 league games in which Payet has featured this season, scoring 31 times, with the seven games he missed yielding just eight points and five goals.
If he carries on in this vein of form, and if manager Slaven Bilic is able to keep the 28-year-old happy in the capital, there’s no reason why he can’t be as important to the club as Di Canio was before him.
To read Trevor Sinclair’s thoughts on the future of Yaya Touré, and Manchester City’s transfer plans, head to 888poker.com.
