WATCH YOUR STEP, HAMMERS

SATURDAY brought West Ham’s biggest home win in the Premier League in almost two years. This season’s form, however, suggests it is not always going to be this way. So the owners should tread very carefully on the issue of Dimitri Payet — particularly now that David Sullivan has categorically denied he will do business on the player in this transfer window. ‘The board’s position is that we do not want to sell Dimitri, we do not need to sell Dimitri for financial or any other reasons, and we will NOT sell Dimitri in the January transfer window,’ Sullivan wrote in the programme for the match with Crystal Palace. Those capitals do not leave room for manoeuvre. So while the fans may be feeling very bullish about doing without Payet now — ‘we just don’t want you any more’ is one of the few printable lines in the new Payet song — that only lasts as long as the good times roll. Manchester City are next up at the London Stadium. Another performance like the one in the FA Cup and selling the best player might not seem like the populist idea. A heavy defeat, at any stage from here, and some will remember that the owner said, unequivocally, that no deal would be done in January, and may react accordingly. Selling Payet will not become the logical move, the defiant move, the smart move, the only move, as it seems now: it will become a LIE, in letters every bit as emphatic as Sullivan’s NOT. West Ham’s ground was a very happy place at the weekend. It hasn’t always been this season. Unlike the player, the owners need to consider more than just the money when planning their next move.