Payet insists he doesn’t need to justify behaviour at West Ham

Dimitri Payet took a pay cut to rejoin Marseille and does not feel the need to justify his mutinous behaviour at West Ham.

The 29-year-old forward has completed a £25 million move back to the Stade Velodrome after becoming unhappy at West Ham following one prolific campaign with the London club.

Payet scored 12 goals for the Hammers following a switch from L’OM in June 2015, but he left the Premier League side under a cloud having refused to play in a January match at Crystal Palace.

At his presentation yesterday, at which Marseille president Jacques-Henri Eyraud revealed Payet had accepted a “significant reduction” to his wages, the France international referred to his revolt.

“I don’t have to justify my behaviour,” he said in quotes reported by L’Equipe. “(West Ham boss) Slaven Bilic has his own opinion about what I did.

“We had plenty of face-to-face discussions, and I know what I said.

“I wanted to come back to Marseille. The stuff that happened previously... I’ll talk about it when I need to, but not now.

“If I wanted to play for money, I would play in another country and would do so for a very long time. I’m not saying this won’t be the case one day, but it’s not my primary motivation right now.

“The important thing is playing and trying to reach new heights, as I have always done.

“So is taking a pay cut a sacrifice? Yes and no.”

He continued at his press conference: “I was no longer happy at West Ham, I had to come back home. I still have fond memories of the West Ham supporters.”

Payet, who has signed a fourand-a-half-year deal, joins a Marseille team in sixth place in Ligue 1.