Dimitri Payet has divided the footballing world over the past couple of weeks, and there’s certainly a strong contingent of Hammers fans here in the Transfer Tavern who are appalled at his recent behaviour.

With West Ham facing a very real relegation battle this season, the French star has publicly announced his desire to leave the club and will refuse to play for manager Slaven Bilic going forward.

We see this sort of thing a lot in modern-day football and it’s a real shame that it’s West Ham’s version of Lionel Messi who has decided to make this sort of decision.

And the mutual feeling here in the pub is that the Frenchman should be sold immediately in order to get the bad feeling as far away from the London Stadium as possible.

But there are a select few here in the Tavern that think Payet should be given another chance at the club, and we’ve been given some good reasons why, by the Hammers locals here in the pub.

So with that in mind, here’s THREE reasons why Payet simply must not be sold by West Ham…

He’s one of the best in the Premier League

Whilst his behaviour is un-loyal, childish and frustrating, the most difficult thing to ignore in the whole Dimitri Payet saga is that he’s one of the most talented players West Ham have ever seen pull on the famous claret and blue shirt.

He’s gone from strength to strength since joining the club and despite not making a rip-roaring start this campaign, you can always count on him to produce a moment of magic when you need it most.

Keeping him at the club and trying to get him back into the first-team would be better than losing a player of his vast quality.

We’ve seen players re-integrated back into teams before

Again, whilst this behaviour is totally unprofessional and doesn’t represent West Ham as a club in the slightest, it’s important to remember things like this have happened in football before.

But with a good sitting down from manager, directors and chairmen, we’ve seen players come back from the brink to go on and shine for their clubs once again.

There’s no reason why West Ham should rush into a sale. They should certainly try and bring the Frenchman round first.

He epitomised the move to the London Stadium

There’s no doubting that West Ham United’s move to the London Stadium was a very difficult one indeed.

It left supporters divided but one man certainly held the key to bringing the fanbase back together again and that was Dimitri Payet.

He was the poster boy for the move throughout – his picture was etched all over the murals around the ground.

For West Ham to surrender his shirt at the first attempt would be weak.