Former West Ham star Dimitri Payet has revealed that he already had a conversation with Slaven Bilic about leaving the club last summer.
Payet went on the war path with West Ham in the January transfer window in order to trigger his transfer to Marseille and cornered himself at the London Stadium by refusing to play for the Hammers.
Initially adamant about selling their star man, West Ham eventually caved in and accepted a big money offer to sell the player to Marseille during the winter window.
Payet feels the West Ham hierarchy didn’t take him too seriously when he warned them about a probable departure from the club and revealed that he spoke about it with Bilic last summer.
While he respected West Ham’s decision not to sell him last summer, he admits that with matters going badly on the pitch in the first half of the season, he had little choice but to push hard in order to leave east London in January.
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Payet told French sports daily L’Equipe: “I warned them about what I was going to do, but maybe they didn’t take me seriously.
“I looked straight at their eyes and told them I would assume the consequences of my actions.
“Slaven Bilic knew that I had a desire to leave as already at the beginning of the season, when I went out of the Euros, we had a discussion, but the club closed the door and I respect their decision.
“But the sporting situation worsened; in January I told him that I wanted to leave for Marseille and not anywhere else and I asked him to pass the message to the board.
“The day he told that it was not finalised, I told him I would no longer play for West Ham.”
West Ham provided a furious response after Payet’s departure and felt that the player disrespected the club by his actions.
