Tuesday 17 January 2017 14:51, UK
West Ham should sell Dimitri Payet this month and get on with playing football, according to former defender Tony Gale.
The France international told Hammers boss Slaven Bilic last week he no longer wants to play for the club, despite signing an improved long-term contract last February.
Two offers from Marseille have fallen well below West Ham's £30m valuation and, according to Sky sources, joint-chairman David Sullivan will not be bullied into a quick sale.
Payet trained away from the first-team squad on Tuesday morning, working one-on-one with a fitness coach at Chadwell Heath, their former training complex now a base for their Academy.
Gale believes a compromise could - and should - be reached this month and says delaying the deal risks costing the club a large profit on a 29-year-old who cost them £10.7m in the summer of 2015.
"They want £30m, £20m has been offered, and it wouldn't surprise me if it ends up at £25m," Gale, who spent a decade in east London as a player, told Premier League Daily. "Get shot of him and get on with football because no one is bigger than the club.
"They'd be silly not to sell, really. If they let it run until the end of the season, he's not going to play any football, then all of a sudden you've got a player whose value is probably down by another £10m or so because of his age.
"They have to get rid of him now, but doing the deal is the important thing and getting the best money for the football club.
"And whilst you're doing it, line up some other moves. It's no good selling him for £25m and not getting anyone else. You can get some quality players for that money - even two, or you could even go for one big player which West Ham fans would love."
Payet's performances last season saw him named Hammer of the Year - an award he called a "huge honour and defining moment" - and earned him a nomination for the PFA Player of the Year trophy.
But his form and attitude have tailed off badly, according to Gale, who believes West Ham can move on quickly once he is sold.
"Everybody thinks life's not going to go on when a star player leaves," he said. "But it does go on and they're soon forgotten.
"Let's face it - he's had one season at West Ham, and the last six games of last season he wasn't performing anyway.
"He came back and had 'a rest' because of the European Championships. then he came back and scored a couple of really good goals, but other than that he hasn't really performed.
"We're not just talking about someone who can be like an American Footballer and just come on and take free-kicks. We're talking about someone who has to work for the team as well.
"Some of the games I've seen the attitude wasn't there, and I hear around the football club that he's not even been speaking to players over the last four or five weeks."
