Very Specific Football Question No.58: Is Dimitri Payet the most loyal player in football?

You can feel it in Stratford, out towards Barking and Dagenham, past Romford, through Basildon, all the way to Southend and beyond. A familiar anger is spreading across east London and Essex – not because of unelected EU bureaucrats or illegal immigrants for a change, but because the locals have uncovered a Judas among them.

Dimitri Payet, West Ham’s star player – a man who has elicited more East End love than Mick Carter in the past 18 months – has broken his worshippers’ hearts by refusing to play for the Hammers again.

He is destined to be the next Frank Lampard/Paul Ince/Jermain Defoe/Craig Bellamy/Yossi Benayoun… the list of Irons heroes turned villains is a long one. We know the fans don’t forgive around these parts and, in Payet’s case, why should they?

As one said, “This team, the staff, we gave him everything, we were always there for him. I feel let down. I feel angry,” – and that was just the manager.

[Payet ridiculed on Wikipedia after going on strike]

Slaven Bilic’s emotional, extraordinarily frank outburst on Payet on Thursday demonstrates the sense of raw betrayal felt at London Stadium.

They will tell you that before West Ham signed him, Payet was a nobody. Now, he is a global phenomenon. A star of Euro 2016. A nominee for the Ballon d’Or. West Ham made him what he is today, and this is how he repays them.

Payet’s readiness to abandon the club that took him to its heart should come as no surprise. Modern footballers, like most working adults, invariably put their own selfish needs before those of their employer.

But while it’s natural for Hammers fans to be saddened and even offended by Payet’s stance, is this really just another case of a foreign mercenary looking after number one?

There are, in fact, some West Ham fans who will sympathise with the player. Like them, he was promised a glittering future at the club’s new stadium. Like them, he was probably gullible enough to believe it, despite there never having been a precedent of a shiny stadium magically making a team world class.

From a professional standpoint, it makes little sense for Payet to stick around. Last weekend’s FA Cup defeat by Manchester City means West Ham have not much more than pride to play for in the remainder of a campaign that will mark the Frenchman’s 30th birthday.

Having peaked late in his career, Payet has limited time available to fulfil the ambitions his talent should demand. Namely, the chance to play for a top club in the Champions League.

It’s also worth remembering the details of the move that brought Payet to West Ham from Marseille in July 2015.

Despite being offered a huge pay rise and a chance to play in the Premier League, Payet never sought to leave the French club, and in fact wanted to stay.

He was offloaded, against his will, only because the club’s disastrous financial situation necessitated it.

What Bilic did not disclose in his Payet tirade was that the player’s transfer request came in direct response to the Hammers rejecting a bid – reported to be just shy of £20m – from Marseille this week.

The French club has money again, having been taken over by US businessman Frank McCourt late last year, but they have some serious catching up to do.

Rudi Garcia’s team currently sit sixth in Ligue 1, some way adrift of a Champions League place, yet he still wants to go there.

Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Arsenal, Shanghai Shenhua and various other clubs richer than Marseille have been linked with Payet’s signature in recent months, even if the Hammers insist there have been no concrete bids.

But none of those clubs turned Payet’s head to this extent. The only one that did was Marseille.

West Ham fans will accuse Payet of lacking loyalty by demanding to leave, but is it this very quality – so rare among footballers – that appears to be driving him. The problem for the Hammers is that this loyalty is not to them, but to Marseille.

France’s most passionately supported club have been playing in a raucous 60,000-capacity stadium long before West Ham got one. To some players that would mean nothing, but Payet has not forgotten it.

The Premier League is quick to dismiss “inferior” competitions, but Payet’s brilliance did not suddenly materialise when he moved to England. He spent a decade in Ligue 1, compared to 18 months across the channel, and he was a Marseille legend long before he became a West Ham one.

When you fall in love with someone, it’s never easy to be told that they’re in love with someone else. But that’s what West Ham fans may have to accept.

(Unless he ends up moving to China in a £500,000-a-week deal on transfer deadline day – in which case, bring on the boos).

Follow @darlingkevin on Twitter

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