Slaven Bilic confirmed this week that Dimitri Payet is refusing to play for West Ham, putting the club in a very difficult position as they have no desire to sell a player of the quality he showed last season.
While his performances have not been quite as impressive this season, he still has the type of quality that West Ham need if they want to grow into a club that regularly finishes in the European spots, but the Frenchman has seemingly had enough.
And John Giles is not impressed.
Speaking on Off The Ball on Thursday night, Giles outlined why he thought that Payet was out of line, and accused West Ham's player of the year of deliberately playing poorly to get a move away from the club.
Payet signed a long-term contract and now he's saying he doesn't want to play anymore. The contract doesn't mean anything anymore, unless the club say they're not going to let him leave and he sits around for two years but they can't afford to do that.
In Payet's case, I think it's dreadful behaviour. If you sign a contract, you should honour that contract. He went to West Ham last year and he was a sensation and people wondered why he's 28... where has he been all his life?
This might tell you.
I think it's dreadful for a club that's trying to plan for the future. If I was Bilic, I'd get the best price I could for him and I'd kick him out. You can't have a player like that in the dressing room that all the other players know want to leave. You need to have a team spirit and a team that is going to go out and fight for each other.
He hasn't played this year. He's been terrible and he's done it on purpose.
You can't have someone in your team who really wants to go because you're humiliating the manager.
Strong words from Giles, the question now is what next for Payet?
West Ham have made it clear that they do not wish to sell, so clearly they believe, unlike Giles, that Payet can be talked around, but the damage that this stance from the Frenchman will do for his relationship with the West Ham fans, who worshipped the ground he walked on, make it hard to imagine this being forgotten and everyone moving on.
And if he is going, who will sign him? His former club Marseille are back in for him, and he seemingly is open to returning, but it is very unlikely that they will offer enough to convince West Ham to part ways.
Links with a move to Arsenal have proven tenuous, so unless Payet's agent as something up his sleeve, this could prove to be a no-win situation if no other club comes in and he still refuses to play for the club.
A messy situation, and the type of stuff that John Giles absolutely hates to see.
You can listen to Thursday's episode of Off The Ball over on Newstalk.com
