Former Hammer Diego Poyet is attempting to reignite his career by starring in the Cypriot First Division for Paphos.As a teenager, Poyet played for England youth sides before eventually making his debut for Charlton aged 18.
During his time at West Ham he would go out on three separate loan spells and play in five Europa League qualifiers under Allardyce’s replacement Slaven Bliic, but it was not a period Poyet enjoyed.
Poyet told Sky Sports “The first season under Allardyce I felt I would have to suck it up, get used to it and then in my second season we had the Europa League qualifiers with Bilic and I played in them, so I felt that the manager was showing faith in me, I did quite well, we had a penalty shootout and took one, so after about a year I felt part of the team.
“I was being patient, I showed I wanted to be there but when we went out of Europe, Bilic was honest with me and said my chances would be limited and if I wanted to go out on loan I should just go.”
“A lot of people would have stayed but I get frustrated very easily so if the manager says that to me, I feel like there’s no real way of winning someone’s trust back,” said Poyet. “I rang my agent, I told him to get me out of there, I didn’t care about anything, I just wanted to leave and sign somewhere else. I didn’t want to be somewhere I wasn’t wanted, I didn’t care how long it took.
“I was made to feel like a pest – I would turn up to training and I would know the staff didn’t want me there. I’d go into training and no matter how well I did there was no reward.