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London - West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has once again insisted that superstar Dimitri Payet will not be leaving the club.
Payet recently said that he would not "close the door to anything" despite having signed a new five-year deal last February.
Furthermore, the France international was substituted off in West Ham’s 2-0 loss to Manchester United on Monday, but Bilic made it clear that it is not something to use to fuel speculation that the 29-year-old is on his way out the door.
"We said that he started the season and we are moving up and forward and we want to keep our best players," Bilic said. "He is definitely our best player and we want to keep him. He's playing well, playing good. Recently he's playing really good. He worked really hard today.
"Don't forget we put in this amount of energy two days after a game [Saturday's loss away to champions Leicester].
"He showed his quality and energy for the team. He had to defend a lot, very deep against [Antonio] Valencia. He doesn't look troubled [by the speculation]."
In the 21 appearances he has made in all competitions this season, Payet has scored three goals and notched up eight assists.
West Ham next's English Premiership fixture will see them welcome cross-town rivals Crystal Palace to the Olympic Stadium on January 14.
Kick off is at 17:00.
