Going into this transfer window thinking all he’d have to deal with was the arrival of a new striker and the exits of Simone Zaza, Jonathan Calleri and Sofiane Feghouli, Slaven Bilic now has to deal with the Dimitri Payet mess.
Telling West Ham he wasn’t interested in playing for them anymore, the French forward is now highly unlikely to take part in the upcoming games, something the Croatian manager is going to have to work around.
With the reason behind this sudden strike being an alleged bid from his former club Marseille, the French press were very keen on Friday to ask the French club’s manager, Rudi Garcia, and defender Rod Fanni about Payet during a press conference ahead of this weekend’s league game.
While Garcia was very coy about the whole situation, Rod Fanni was far more open, and even hinted at some mistreatment from West Ham’s part towards the 29-year-old.
He said, relayed by Le10 Sport: “I haven’t followed it much, but the players have spoken about it in the dressing room, and it looks very tricky for him. I don’t have a lot of information, and I hope it’ll end well, for him rather than for his club. It’d be great if he came. I’m a big fan, but I think it’ll be complicated.
“They’re going to need to spend. It’d be great for our ambitions because he has a lot of clubs after him, and it’d be a big investment. If he’s not treated or not respected as a man over there, you can understand he might have problem. You will need to see with him directly.”
As things stand, West Ham’s stance is that Payet isn’t for sale, but if he keeps kicking up a fuss, and the right offer comes along, the logical thing to do would be to get rid while his value is close to its peak.
