West Ham United barely got a mention as Dimitri Payet, the former France international who destroyed his own London Stadium legacy, reflected on a fine European career this week.
Maybe that should not come as a surprise.
The former France international took a sledgehammer to his own reputation; Payet forced through a controversial move to Marseille in January 2017. Yet, it was with 27 on his back at West Ham United that this modern day maverick played arguably the consistent football of a largely hit-and-miss career.
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Speaking of that number 27 shirt, while making a passing reference to his time in East London, Dimitri Payet explains why he would wear a number recently subsequently – with far less success – by Nayef Aguerd, Albian Ajeti, Lucas Perez and Patrice Evra.
Dimitri Payet wanted the number seven at West Ham United
Talking to the official Ligue 1 YouTube channel, Payet admitted that he took the 27 because both the seven and the 17 were occupied.
“There wasn’t the number [seven] available, so I took the number that had a seven in it,” he says before swiftly moving on to his stints at Marseille, Lille and St Etienne.
At the time of his arrival in June 2015, Matt Jarvis had the number seven kit under lock and key. Right-back Joey O’Brien was the owner of number 17.
Jarvis would join Norwich City on loan during the final day of that summer window, though. Ironically, leaving the number Payet wanted more than any other vacant.
Had Jarvis been farmed out to Carrow Road two months earlier, the now-38-year-old enigma would have curled home those iconic free-kicks in a kit arguably best remembered – this side of the Millennium, anyway – by Marko Arnautovic’s similarly brief but brilliant spell as West Ham’s talisman.
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Crysencio Summerville is the Hammers’ number seven these days.
In his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Nuno confirmed that Summerville is unavailable for the visit of Manchester City on Saturday. Hammers News have been told that the former Leeds ace hopes to make the FA Cup quarter-final reunion with his old employers in early-April.
“We will assess him day by day and see how he goes but he’s not available for the game,” Nuno said. “We’re going to miss him as he’s an important player for us. We will miss him for this game, for sure.
“When he came in [to the XI], he was a big help for the team. He really did well as he has done many, many times for us in recent weeks. He’s huge for us.”
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