West Ham are slowly removing all reminders of Dimitri Payet

Posted Thursday, February 02, 2017 by Dreamteamfc.com

Breaking up is hard to do.

But if those self-help books have taught us anything, it's that removing any evidence of your past lover is a sure way of beginning the healing process.

And it seems West Ham are heeding that advice, by removing a giant mural of Dimitri Payet from the London Stadium.

The mural, which had Payet's name and shirt number in big letters, showed the ex-Hammer hitting one his trademark free-kicks, with the words: “We've got Payet, Dimitri Payet! I just don't think you understand. He's Super Slavs man, he's better than Zidane. We've got Dimitri Payet!”

Definitely no longer appropriate.

And quite fittingly, it's been replaced by a giant poster of Andy Carroll's gravity-defying overhead kick.

Ah, that feels better already, right?

West Ham were adamant the giant Payet mural would be replaced with one of Carroll by the time they play Manchester City in the Premier League this evening.

Carroll scored this wondrous bicycle kick goal against Crystal Palace last month, with the towering front man also scoring twice against Middlesbrough during a period where Payet refused to played for the Hammers.

In one of the biggest January transfer sagas of recent years, the Frenchman was adamant he would no longer play for the east London side and was pressing for a transfer back to Marseille.

Manager Slaven Bilic made the sulky France international train with the reserves while the club decided that to do, before eventually letting him go back to the Stade Velodrome for a reported ￡25million.

But that wasn't before West Ham made him pay back his ￡500,000 salary for January.

Payet's return to Marseille was greeted with much excitement by their fans, and the 29-year-old set-piece master made his second debut for the side in last night's French Cup round of 32 game against Lyon.