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Cape Town - West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic believes the fact that the club has managed to retain the services of Dimitri Payet shows the club is an attractive prospect to potential new signings.
The Hammers boss has been busy in the off-season transfer window, bringing in some top talents in Sofiane Feghouli, Havard Nordtveit, Andre Ayew and Arthur Masuaku.
However, it is the club's ability to retain the services of talismanic midfielder Dimitri Payet that could prove be crucial in the coming campaign.
The Frenchman played a crucial role in helping the Hammers secure a seventh-place finish in the Premier League last season, contributing an impressive nine goals and 12 assists despite missing a large chunk of the campaign through injury.
And Bilic feels that Payet's decision not to seek a move elsewhere has helped attract new players to the club.
"With keeping Dimitri Payet we wanted to show that the club is serious when you are talking about new players or trying to get the club to another level and that shows me as much as a new stadium - even more," Bilic told Sky Sports.
"Because West Ham have always been labelled as a club who have had to sell their best players whether that is Frank Lampard or Rio Ferdinand or whoever.
"But we showed that the club is thinking serious. We lost some players, some were on loan, we lost James Tomkins who went to Palace. We have got a few and we are happy we have done good business with Nordtveit and Feghouli who are really great players who were free.
"Two days ago we completed the deal with Ayew and Arthur Masuaku from Olympiakos because we needed another left back and that is basically it."
