It’s just before midnight here in Washington DC and I’ve just had a rather unusual experience. Whenever I come to this wonderful city I always like to visit the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials late at night. Tonight I went to the Jefferson Memorial where I ran into a group of Trump supporters from Alabama, who are here for the inauguration. I interviewed several of them for my radio show but when we had finished one of them asked which team I support. As soon as I mentioned West Ham, he instantly asked about Dimitri Payet. Weird, or what!
Well the Payet saga shows no sign of ending anytime soon. Marseille are said to be about to table a new bid but I doubt if any of us seriously believe it will be anything like the £30 million the club has set as its unofficial minimum valuation.
There is little doubt in my mind that Payet has played his last game for us and will never again appear in a claret and blue shirt. I’ve got over being sad about it. Now I’m just angry.
Realistically, we have to sell him in this transfer window. Leaving it until the summer and letting his rot in the reserves would be an act of ridiculous self harm. By then he will have turned thirty and we’d be lucky to get £15 million for him.
So we have to swallow our pride and get the deal done for the highest possible price. But there has to be a minimum. I’d like to say that should be £30 million, but my suspicion is that he will be sold for £25 million plus a few add ons.
What would your minimum price be?