With the new season already in the offing for West Ham, entering the first round of the UEFA Europa League qualifiers knocking on the door already on the 2nd July, the Hammers are looking to strengthen their squad as soon as possible in this transfer window. The man in the spotlight is currently Olympique de Marseille's highly-rated winger Dimitiri Payet.
The 28-year-old winger; who spent his youth days at Paul Pogba's french youth club Le Havre, has enjoyed a terrific season in Ligue 1, and is now heading for the Premier League. Two days ago, the blog Boleyn Insider, featured on West Ham's official website WHUFC.com, was confident that the club is pulling in the strings to make a transfer happen - and the club acknowledged the statement by publishing.
"I can exclusively reveal that the Club hope to resolve a move for the France international (Dimitri Payet) one way or the other this week", the blog author wrote, with the club not declining the statement.
London looming large
With all the nonsensical transfer speculation going around these days, this was actually a fruitful one, for both player and club. West Ham have now agreed a €15m (£10.9m) transfer for the creative midfielder who has been pictured in east London earlier today - having completed his flight safely. Payet is being offered a £60, 000-a-week contract running until 2019, with a bonus fee of £10,000 for every appearance he totals with the club.
Costly Champions League failure
A significant reason why the Marseille manager Marcelo Bielsa was unable to keep hold of his efficient attacker was the club's failure to qualify for the Champions League, finishing two points off third-placed Monaco, who snatched a ticket for the third qualification round to get into the elite competition of European football. This meant a £12,000 drop on Payet's weekly salary, which he didn't exactly fancy.
The French international with 15 caps is however, not going to play in the Champions League anyway, but he'll not be stripped of European football. West Ham won the Fair Play League award and could potentially open the scoring against FC Lusitans of Andorra come early July in the Europa League qualifiers.
Providing power
Payet could certainly be a man to improve West Ham this season, having provided a staggering 21 assists in the league this campaign, on top of his seven goals. This means he recorded either a goal or assist every 108 minutes on average. Altough the level obviously is lesser in the French top flight, a comparison with the elite of Premier League wingers could come in handy. Chelsea's star man Eden Hazard averaged a goal contribution every 140 minutes, and Arsenal's revelation Alexis Sánchez averages a goal or assist every 122 minutes in the league alone.
Slaven Bilić' early business
The new man in charge for the Irons has not hesitated in the transfer market, completing some early business already with four new signings. Payet will be a Boleyn Ground newcomer along with the Spanish U21 midfielder Pedro Obiang from Sampdoria, the former Birmingham goalkeeper Darren Randolph and the promising full-back Stephen Hendrie joining from Hamilton. Additionally, Martin Samuelsen has joined the club's U21s from Manchester City.