Arriving in the Marseille city in September 2013, Florian Thauvin had a more or less contrasting first adventure in the jersey of Olympique de Marseille. Transferred to Newcastle for just under 20 million euros in the summer of 2015, the French international (10 caps, 1 goal) finally made his return to Canebière in the form of a loan before being permanently sold by the Magpies in the summer of 2017 for a check for 11 million euros. Two stints during which the 31-year-old right winger notably rubbed shoulders with a certain Dimitri Payet, who worked for OM between 2013 and 2015 then from 2017 to 2023. Present in the show Zack freewheeling from the streamer Zack Nani, the current Udinese player then returned to his relationship with the Reunionese, now under the tunic of Vasco da Gama.
A Valbuena-Payet-Thauvin conflict
If controversies have regularly surrounded the two men, the native of Orléans wanted to clarify things this Thursday evening by revealing the origin of this conflicting relationship. “I have to tell the truth or not, I don’t want to create controversy but he behaved badly with me. I will go back to the chronology of events to fully understand”initially confided the 1m81 left-hander before exposing his truth. “When I arrived at OM, I had a lot of respect for him, I saw him on TV, he’s a great player but there you go, initially there was a problem between him and Valbuena and the problem branched off on me. Both wanted to be number 10, both didn’t get along, they didn’t pass to each other and in the end they didn’t even pass to me anymore. I also wanted to impose myself so I said: ‘ok if you don’t make passes at me, I won’t make passes at you'”.
A first hiccup ultimately leading to a private meeting between the three main people involved and a certain José Anigo, determined to burst the abscess. “We are summoned by José Anigo, Valbuena says nothing, Payet says nothing and I, dead for dead, speak and explain. I say, they don’t make passes at me, I don’t make passes at them, it’s simple. Anigo looks at me and almost applauds me, he says: ‘no but it’s not normal that it’s the young person who takes responsibility, the problem is there, we all see it so stop your tricks’”then adds Thauvin before developing the causes of a relationship that has become nightmarish. “The problem starts from there and then there are two or three matches where I am shifted and Payet sees me but he does not help me and there I make a mistake, I insult him, it is a mistake, I admit. You can read on my lips that I insult him and from the end of the relationship”.
An unstable and conflicting relationship
At odds, the two men finally decided to move towards new horizons in the summer of 2015. While Thauvin joined Newcastle, Payet signed for West Ham. Yes, but now, after months spent in the Premier League, the two sidekicks saw their paths cross again. Loaned twice by the Magpies to OM, the former Bastiais learned, in fact, of the comeback of the native of Saint-Pierre in January 2017. Enough to reignite the conflict? Not really, according to Thauvin’s words. At least initially. “Dim when he came back, we understood that it was kid stuff, we wiped the slate clean, it went really well, we played Perudo on the road, it went really well for a year and a half or 2 years. Afterwards, the results started to go badly and given the track record, people started to say that there were problems between Payet and Thauvin, the coach André Villas-Boas called us and said ‘I have the impression that ‘there is a problem and if there is we talk about it’. And I swear, at that moment, I have no problem”.
And to continue: “the next day, we play, we lose, I miss a penalty, end of a bad match and I go to see Dim and I ask him if there is a problem with me, he tells me ‘no, don’t worry, there’s nothing’ . I leave it there but the next day, President Eyraud arrives in the locker room, he yells and he tells us ‘if you have a Payet and Thauvin problem, you solve it’ but I didn’t understand and Dim continued to tell me that ‘there was nothing. In the end, after something stupid he did, but it doesn’t concern me so I don’t talk about it, he explains himself with the coach, with Steve (Mandanda) too and he ends up telling me . ‘You Flo, if you have a problem with me, you tell me, I have the impression that you’re only playing for your face, last year you weren’t there it was going well, now you’re back, It’s going badly, I don’t know if it’s because you’re at the end of your contract or you want to get back into the selection, etc.'”. Frustrated by the turn of events and feeling betrayed, Thauvin then added:
Thauvin has moved on
“He attacked me in front of the locker room, I didn’t like it, I saw it as a knife in the back and I told him that I was happy to learn that there was a problem between us because I didn’t know it until now. I told him that the selection or the end of my contract did not concern him, that it was between me and the club and I finished by saying: ‘currently I am the team’s top scorer and best passer. ‘ and I’ve never seen a guy who plays for his face be a better passer. From then on, we didn’t speak anymore.”summed up the Habs before concluding his remarks by returning to a final episode. “I met him again by chance at the Monaco Formula 1 GP a year and a half ago, he came to shake my hand himself and I think it was a way of saying to me ‘ok Flo I recognize I messed up’. We all make mistakes in life, I don’t care, I have wiped the slate clean, we all make mistakes in life. I know that we won’t go out to eat together every day, but we have to know how to forgive, even if I would like him to be able to also recognize that he messed up like I was able to recognize one day that I had messed around with him. And that’s it. So there you have it, the story is there.”. It now remains to be seen whether the current Vasco da Gama player will agree to give his version of the facts…
Pub. the 17/10/2024 22:42
Update 18/10/2024 08:17
