Would Payet have become one of Europe's best at Man Utd?
Karan Tejwani
- Updated: 12 Apr 2022 14:48 BST
- 3 min read
Dimitri Payet revealed that he turned down a move to Manchester United during his transfer saga while he was attempting to depart West Ham United in January 2017.
The former Hammers’ midfielder said he made a return to Marseille for family reasons, and he has stayed in the south of France since returning.
In that time, he has had a stellar time, taking Marseille to the Europa League final in 2018 and even earning a spot in France’s World Cup squad that year, but missing out through injury.
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Payet, though, says he has no regrets over the move not coming through: “There were other clubs, big clubs. There was Manchester United and others.
“It was a personal and family choice. I think it was the best for me and my family. ‘I’m not someone who lives with regrets.’
Even at 35 now, he’s still an important part of the Marseille set-up, as they look to consolidate second place in Ligue 1 now and return to the Champions League.
However, his career could’ve been much different had he joined Manchester United when leaving West Ham.
How would Payet have done at Man Utd?
At the time, Manchester United were in Jose Mourinho’s first season in charge, playing in the Europa League and competing for three trophies as well as Champions League qualification.
In his first two months, he would’ve played Southampton in the final of the EFL Cup, winning a dramatic match 3-2 with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring a late winner.
That would’ve been the first major trophy of his career, and he would’ve added to it later that year with the Europa League, as Manchester United beat Ajax in Stockholm.
In terms of playing style, Manchester United often lacked creativity in the next two seasons, and Payet may have been able to change that.
The following season, they finished well behind Manchester City in the league in second place, but with a few of Payet’s talents and Mourinho’s track record of working with creative players like the Frenchman, there may have been a closer challenge.
Stop whatever you’re doing and watch this absolute rocket from Dimitri Payet 😳
Wow. Just wow. 🔥
pic.twitter.com/oxNRDH4v6x— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) April 7, 2022
That creativity may have been further exploited by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who didn’t have the best team over his spell, but it worked well for some of the forwards like Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Bruno Fernandes.
Both Rashford and Martial put up career-best goalscoring numbers under the Norwegian, while Fernandes was one of the league’s best creators in that time.
They may not be as good now, but Payet could certainly have had the potential to repeat his heroics from the 2015-16 season when he was named in the PFA Team of the Season.
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