West Ham United defender James Collins has heaped praise on the Hammers’ summer signing Dmitri Payet, whom the Welshman hailed as a “special player”.
The 31-year-old is relishing the prospect of seeing Payet contributing to West Ham’s success, and has saluted his attitude since joining the club from Marseille this summer.
“He’s a tremendous signing for the club”, said Collins to the Hammers’ official website.
“He’s going to create so many chances and score goals as well.
“You can see it from the day he walked in he’s kept himself fit.”
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The defender has expressed his excitement at Payet’s arrival, and feels his ability to adapt to life at a new club is an asset top players have.
“He’s come in and speaks very good English and gets on with the lads.
“It’s an exciting time to have players like that in the squad.
“You can see he’s a top player – even in training.”
Collins, who captained his side in their pre-season friendly over Southend earlier this month, also talked up the performance of the Frenchman who scored two goals in a 3-2 win to cap off a fine debut performance.
“I played with him at Southend and he was a million miles the best player on the pitch. He’s a special player”, added Collins.
Payet has been one of a number of new signings at West Ham over the summer under the new management of Slaven Bilic.
He along with Pedro Obiang, Angelo Ogbonna, Manuel Lanzini, Stephen Hendrie and Darren Randolph are the new arrivals at the east London club, who are already under way in their 2015/16 season in the Europa League qualifying rounds.
The 28-year-old will be in contention to feature in the Hammers' Europa League third qualifying round tie against Astra Giurgiu at Upton Park later tonight.
