Cresswell ranks former Hammers star Payet as ‘one of the best’

Dimitri Payet may have burned his bridges with West Ham United, but Hammers full-back Aaron Cresswell still rates him as one of the best players he has ever played with.

Payet became an instant hero at Upton Park when he arrived in 2015, with a series of spectacular free-kicks that set the Premier League alight.

However, it all turned sour towards the end of 2016 as the Frenchman became unhappy in east London and subsequently pushed through a move back to Marseille.

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Now Cresswell is preparing to share the pitch with him again but this time they will be opponents as England travel to France for an international friendly.

And the 27-year-old knows he has his work cut out against his former team-mate.

“He was sort of unheard of before he joined the Premier League and West Ham,” said Cresswell.

“For me personally, I didn’t know much about him. But you knew he had the quality after a week or two training with us.

“He is arguably the best player I have played with and he certainly showed that day in, day out in training and of course in the games.

“Of course. It would have been nice to see him stay. Nobody knows his reason why he wanted to leave but it is what it is. We move on. People move on and the club moves on.

“It won’t be strange [to play against him] because I used to face him sometimes in training. You think you know him inside out but we’ll see what happens on the day. I concentrate on my own game and I want to do well.”