West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic has confirmed that playmaker Dimitri Payet doesn’t want to play for the club anymore, but he won’t be sold.
As seen in the tweet below, the Croatian tactician revealed the news at his press-conference on Friday, but reaffirmed the club’s position on the matter in that they aren’t interested in selling their best players.
Nevertheless, there has been a damaging dip in the French international’s form this season compared to last, and it has been one of the factors that has led to the Hammers experiencing a disappointing Premier League campaign so far.
Last season, the 29-year-old scored 15 goals and provided 17 assists in 44 appearances for the club. Fast forward to today, and he has just three goals and eight assists in 22 outings.
It’s a noticeable drop off and question marks have been raised over his desire to play for West Ham, with this update now likely to spark speculation of interest from clubs around Europe.
As noted by The Telegraph last month, Arsenal were favourites to sign the former Marseille man, although the Ligue 1 outfit were linked with a shock swoop to secure a £30m comeback earlier this month, as per L’Equipe.
In turn, it remains to be seen how long West Ham can fend off interest in January as ultimately they’ll hope to persuade Payet into having a change of heart and to rediscover his best form in order to drag them up the Premier League table.
For now though, Bilic sounds resigned to the fact that he’ll have trouble with his star playmaker’s attitude, but remained defiant that he will remain at the London Stadium.
SB: “We have said we don’t want to sell our best players but @dimpayet17 does not want to play for us. We are not going to sell him.
— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) January 12, 2017