WHO NEEDS YOU?
Carroll dig at Payet as West Ham and Chelsea win without rebels
ANDY CARROLL scored a goal-ofthe-season contender yesterday — then lashed out at wantaway rebel Dimitri Payet claiming that no one is bigger than West Ham.
Carroll’s spectacular scissors kick sealed a stunning win against Crystal Palace and he said: ‘I don’t think any player is bigger than the club. That’s what the lads believe, the manager, all the staff and the fans. We showed we’re a tight group and got three points for it.
‘We have answered a few of the critics, with everything that has been going in during the week and everyone talking. I have received a lot of calls and messages and it has been the same for the other players. It has been tough, especially as the lads are close to one another.
‘To put all that behind us and work as a team has been fantastic. All the lads in the dressing room were fantastic and professional. They know what it means to the fans and the club. We stuck together and everyone is hungry and dedicated. It showed in the performance.’
Fans hurled abuse at Payet, their former idol, with the club refusing to sell a player still with three-anda-half years left on his contract. Supporters sang the name of manager Slaven Bilic and changed the words of what was once their favourite song to, “F*** off Payet we just don’t want you any more”.
Co-chairman David Sullivan also warned the Frenchman he will not be allowed to leave this month, as strong messages were delivered from the boardroom ahead of the match.
Sullivan said: ‘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.’ Not that West Ham needed him yesterday anyway, as they produced a superb second-half display to romp home, with goals from Sofiane Feghouli, Carroll and Manuel Lanzini.
Bilic said: ‘I heard the support from the crowd. I don’t see it’s personally for me, it’s for the decision we made [on Payet] together. We had a team and fans totally galvanised. You are losing the quality because he’s a great player but we showed it was about the team not the individuals. It’s a great example for that.’
Payet, 29, has a £120,000-a-week contract which ties him to the club until 2012 but wants to return to his former club Marseille and has told Bilic he has a bad back and cannot play. He has been fined two weeks wages. Co-chairman David Gold
EARLIER this week, a Frenchman moved from one club to another. Midway through his contract, Manchester United decided they did not need Morgan Schneiderlin any more so they moved him on into the willing hands of Everton. There was no fuss and nor should there have been. It is the way football works.
When a club decide they do not want a player any more, they get rid of him. It doesn’t matter how long his contract has to run. If he doesn’t want to go, there are ways and means of persuading him it really is in his best interests to leave. Making him train with the kids is a favourite.
He might not have any desire to leave. It might uproot his family, force him to take his kids out of the school they are happy in, move him to an area where he doesn’t want to live. But that’s a footballer’s life. Transitory and peripatetic and, if you are in the Premier League, extremely well paid.
It is worse for managers. Twentyseven Premier League and Football League bosses have been sacked by clubs already this season. Two clubs, Swansea and Rotherham, have sacked two managers each. Some boards rarely take their finger off the trigger. Success or survival are all that matter.
So why is everyone getting so awfully upset about another Frenchman, Dimitri Payet, and his apparent desire to leave West Ham? Loyalty has to cut both ways and if clubs do not show any loyalty to players or managers, why should players show any loyalty to them? It is sad, I know, but anyone who thinks there is any loyalty left in football is an idiot.
I feel sorry for West Ham’s fans, of course I do. They have taken Payet to their hearts and sung his song and thrilled to his world-class skills. He was supposed to be the marquee player to lead them into the brave new world of their move to the London Stadium and beyond and, now that he wants to go, the misery of that stadium move has been multiplied.
But do I feel sorry for West Ham’s board in any of this? No, of course not. For a start, they are currently trying to sign striker Scott Hogan, who is under contract to Brentford. West Ham do not appear to be overly concerned with the concept of Hogan’s loyalty.
They don’t seem to care too much about the effect on the Championship side or how Brentford’s fans will feel about the loss of a player who was looked after by the club for 19 months while he recovered from a knee injury.
West Ham have also submitted a bid for Hull’s Robert Snodgrass. OK, the offer was derisory and has been treated with the wider contempt it deserved, but Snodgrass is just about the only thing standing between Hull’s fans and relegation. West Ham don’t appear too bothered about his loyalty, either. It’s just the way football is.
When a club want to get rid of a player, they get rid of him. When a player wants to leave, he usually leaves. People will accuse Payet of breaking his contract but he is no more breaking his contract than a club break a player’s contract when they sell him.
West Ham do not have to sell Payet. They can hold him to his contract. Just the same as Chelsea will be able to hold Diego Costa to his contract even if interest from China hardens up and his row with Antonio Conte gets worse. But clubs rarely do that just as players rarely stay where they are not wanted. It’s the money, stupid.
It is little consolation for their fans but, in this instance, West Ham are just the biter bit. Some memories in football are blissfully short but it was only in June 2015 that West Ham agreed a deal with Payet behind the back of his club, Marseille, where he was a crowd favourite. Marseille were bounced into selling him. So why should we feel any sympathy for West Ham if, as reports suggest, Marseille have returned the favour? I don’t remember Payet being castigated for his lack of loyalty when he arrived on these shores and I don’t see the point in castigating him for it now. He has found himself stuck at a club whose board decided to move to an athletics stadium and prepared for it so badly that their season has descended into a mess. It is not really much of a surprise that Payet wants out. He may not be better than Zinedine Zidane, as the song suggests, but he clearly feels he deserves a more fitting stage. Their dream of making the London Stadium a place where the biggest stars want to play is coming true — but only because Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez have filled their boots there when they have visited. A transfer window is always a giddy festival of separating players from their allegiances and prising them from fans who idolise them. It’s a sick kind of romance. All Payet is doing is making the first move.