Ask any West Ham fan how he feels about Dimitri Payet pulling on the claret and blue jersey every week, and they will likely tell you that they can't believe a player of his quality is strutting his stuff at Upton Park.
A French international, Payet moved from Marseille in the summer after being voted into Ligue 1 team of the season and being widely regarded as one of the very best players in the league. Considering how inconsistent the players at clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Manchester City have been at times this season, it is becoming very common to see fans of those clubs wonder why the Frenchman isn't lining up for them instead of the Hammers.
His form in France was wonderful last year, but as Michael Walker in the Irish Times said on Saturday morning, his career trajectory has not been one that would inspire confidence in his ability to perform regularly:
West Ham were the ones who decided he was worth the 'risk', and now they have a player that has a very good chance of making the Premier League team of the year, and is a contender for man of the match in nearly every game he plays in. From watching his stunning spatial awareness and composure on the ball, it seems crazy that so many teams, not just in England, would overlook him, especially after his final season at Marseille saw him compared with some of the biggest names in football at the moment:
All it took was €15m to lure him from France, but you get the feeling that were a European giant to come sniffing in the summer, the fee commanded would be triple that.
Payet can do it all. His passing is creative and unpredictable, his shooting from range is a constant threat, his first touch could catch and preserve an egg that has been thrown from the top of a building, and he's got every trick in his locker, but West Ham fans, and even players will tell you that his work rate is what really makes him stand out.
After West Ham drew 2-2 with Man City, Mark Noble said exactly that:
It's no surprise for us because we see it every day in training. You'll have seen it tonight, it's not just the skills, the balls, or the delivery he's got, it's the hard work he puts in.
He's a credit to himself and that's why he makes the difference.
And he certainly is making a huge difference:
So why were there no other Premier League clubs for him?
Newcastle and Arsenal fans will be the first to tell you that hot-shot players in Ligue 1 are extremely hit and miss in the Premier League. Marouane Chamakh, Girvinho, Remy Cabella, and Florian Thauvin have all lit the league up and been shipped off to England, only to become the but of a joke before long.
But for all the misses, Ligue 1 has produced some excellent signings for Premier League teams. Demba Ba was a revelation at Newcastle, as was Yoann Cabaye, and Eden Hazard (up until this season) was well worth the money paid to Lille, and that's just off the top of the head from the last few years.
Another question to ponder, is had Manchester United, Chelsea, or Liverpool signed Payet, would he be having the same success? Is this a case of a big fish in a small pond?
Scott Parker won a football writer's player of the year award in a relegation season for West Ham, because he was the heart and soul of the team and was involved in everything the team did well. Similarly he was outstanding at Charlton, but never made an impact when he had to take a back seat at Chelsea.
There's no doubt that every West Ham player knows their team has a far better chance of doing something if Payet has the ball. He commands authority over set-pieces and is a safety net for a player lost in possession, and he likely wouldn't have enjoyed that freedom at one of the previously mentioned clubs. That said, if he arrived at any club in the Premier League and put in the work at training that Noble claims he did for West Ham, he would be in the team, but was it the need to prove a point that made him work so hard?
We'll never know for sure, but with the benefit of hindsight it seems clear that the Premier League's big boys (although that idea itself is quickly deteriorating week after week) missed a trick.
Meanwhile, West Ham fans are seeing what others are saying about their star man, humming the 'Dimitri Payet song' with a smile.
We've got @dimpayet17! ⚒⚽️?#WHUFC pic.twitter.com/TMXVtmDmLi
— West Ham United FC (@whufc_official) January 21, 2016
As for the other clubs, looking to follow West Ham's example, who are the top candidates to be the 'next' Dimitri Payet?
One standout is Toulouse striker Wissam Ben Yedder.
Toulouse will need to sell, so he will be going cheap, and he is another extremely talented player with a low centre of gravity and all the skills required to make Premier League fans purr. He does operate further forward than Payet, but at 25 years of age he is well worth a shot for any side looking to grab a bargain.
Then again, there's no way to know if a player can translate their form from French football to England until they arrive.
In the meantime, we'll just continue to salivate over the 'vines' that are generated every time Dimitri Payet jogs onto the pitch, and wonder how much of a difference he may have made to the 'bigger' teams that now find themselves in competition with West Ham for a European place.
