- Slaven Bilic admits Dimitri Payet has asked to leave West Ham United but the Club will not sell
- Manager has encouraged the midfielder to show commitment to the Club and return to the fold
- The Board has pledged that no key players will be sold during the January transfer window
Slaven Bilic has admitted Dimitri Payet has asked to leave West Ham United and will not figure in Saturday’s Premier League fixture with Crystal Palace.
However, the manager has insisted Payet will not be sold and he expects the France midfielder to return to the fold and demonstrate the same level of commitment the Club has shown to him.
The Board has pledged that no key players will be sold during the January transfer window.
Speaking to the media at the Club’s Rush Green training ground on Thursday morning, Bilic said: “We have a situation with a player and it is Dimitri Payet. He wants to leave. The Club, us, as I said so many times before, we don’t want to sell him. We’ve said hundreds of times that we don’t want to sell our best players, we want to keep them.
“I have a team to manage and he has probably been tapped up by some clubs, or whatever, which is usual in this part of the year, in the transfer window. Anyway, until he changes his attitude, he is out of the team. He isn’t going to train with us.
“We aren’t going to sell him, not whatsoever. It’s not a money issue or anything. We want to keep our best players and I expect from him to come back and to show commitment and determination to the team like the team has shown to him.”
We want to keep our best players and I expect from him to come back and to show commitment and determination to the team like the team has shown to him
Slaven Bilic
The 29-year-old was signed from Olympique de Marseille in summer 2015 and has flourished in a West Ham shirt, earning an international recall and excelling for France at UEFA Euro 2016, winning the Hammer of the Year award in his debut season and being awarded an improved five year-contract last year.
The Board has also invested heavily in improved contracts for many of the Club’s other first-team players in recent months, with Michail Antonio, Aaron Cresswell, Manuel Lanzini, Darren Randolph and Reece Oxford all signing new deals in 2016, while the Hammers broke their transfer record by making Andre Ayew one of eleven new signings last summer.
When asked if he is confident Payet will still be a West Ham player in February, Bilic restated his intention to keep the No27 – and all the Club's leading players – in east London.
“I spoke to the Club, I spoke to the Chairmen, I spoke to the Vice-Chairman and it’s not a money issue," he said. "We want to keep him, that’s the reason we gave him such a long contract and the reason why he signed another contract in January, four or five months after we signed him, because we want him. That’s it.”
When asked for his other team news ahead of Saturday's derby, Bilic confirmed that Michail Antonio is suffering from 'flu or temperature' and will not train on Thursday, but could return to Rush Green on Friday and be available for selection.
Elsewhere, Cheikhou Kouyate and Andre Ayew are absent at the Africa Cup of Nations, while Diafra Sakho (back), Alvaro Arbeloa (calf), Arthur Masuaku (knee) and Gokhan Tore (knee) are out injured.
On a more positive note, James Collins, Sam Byram and Reece Oxford have all returned to fitness, have been in full training this week and are available to face the Eagles.