ASK any West Ham fan and they will rattle off Dimitri Payet’s best moments in claret and blue.
But given that he has had the past five months off, they would have to go back to last season for the memories.
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Sure, the free-kicks against Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and the one up at Old Trafford were special.
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So, too, were some of the assists, along with the tricks that turned him into a cult hero down at West Ham.
Since then, with the exception of his goal against Middlesbrough, he has barely lifted a leg.
One decent season does not turn him into a legend. We are not talking Bobby Moore, Alan Devonshire, Tony Cottee or Sir Trevor Brooking.
Payet, who is refusing to play Palace tomorrow, probably does not even know who these Hammers icons are.
He has taken West Ham to the cleaners, signing a £125,000-a-week contract in the summer while angling for a move all along. The France midfielder has played David Sullivan, the man who signed off that contract, like a fiddle.
He is Hammer of the Year, an accolade they should strip from him following his decision to go on strike. Payet does not seem the type to care.
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He wants out, something West Ham have been aware of ever since he gave an interview in November suggesting he had bigger fish to fry.
Karren Brady, the club’s vice-chairman, was confident that he had nowhere to go. In any event, she made it clear he would not be sold.
At 29, with a fat new contract in the bag, Brady believed nobody would really come in for Payet in January.
She called that wrong.
By then he was acting up, repeatedly telling Hammers boss Slaven Bilic that he no longer wanted to play on the wing.
Payet saw himself as the main man, the No 10 the team should be built around after his successful adaptation to English football. He always has an excuse for poor form, with France’s run to the final of Euro 2016 a ready-made explanation for his sluggish start to the season.
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Last Friday he hit a new low, relegated to the substitutes’ bench for the 5-0 FA Cup home defeat against Manchester City because of his attitude.
At the time the club officially claimed he was “too tired” to play.
The reality is that Payet is a problem child, a player with a history of causing trouble at various clubs in France.
West Ham were a club of convenience, a stop-off point for Payet on the way to something he considered to be bigger.
There are honourable ways to go about your business in football but what does Payet care?
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The truth is he could not care less for West Ham.
Payet will, ultimately, weasel his way out of the club that offered him an opportunity to rebuild his career.
His time at West Ham will be tainted, those fans’ memories of great flicks and free-kicks overshadowed by his lack of class.
Graham a true great
GRAHAM TAYLOR was one of the good guys.
He was always there, always on the end of the phone, happy to discuss some of the deeper issues in the game.
The great man always had a view, you could be sure of that.
It is a measure of his standing in the game that Taylor’s distinctive voice was still so sought-after.
By football clubs. By BBC Radio 5 Live. By journalists.
Given his bitter experience with England, it always amazed me how much time he was willing to give to the media.
That ability to forgive, along with his statesmanlike air, turned Taylor into an authority on the game. When he travelled with 5 Live, he loved the camaraderie that went with those trips.
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We would often talk on those flights abroad, with Taylor beckoning me to his seat — him in row one, me coming down from the back of the plane — to chat about England.
He had been through so much and yet his appetite for the game was undimmed.
Taylor lived for the game.
At various times we discussed writing his book, the definitive account of his life in the sport.
Like Churchill’s war diaries, it would have run to many volumes. He had so many experiences, so much knowledge to pass on that it would have made required reading.
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The game had moved on by the time we got to know each other properly, but he was always happy to retrace his steps and talk about his early career.
At Lincoln, at Watford, Aston Villa and, of course, the national team.
The England documentary was a mistake, but it gave a unique insight into the life of an England manager.
Until then, we never fully understood the pressures of managing the country. We do now.
Rest in peace, Graham.
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