West Ham should let Dimitri Payet 'rot' until they get £35m asking price from Marseille, says Rio Ferdinand

Slaven Bilic should let Dimitri Payet “rot” in the reserves if Marseille do not stump up West Ham’s £35million asking price, according to former Hammer Rio Ferdinand.

Payet is on strike at the London Stadium and has gone so far as to threaten to fake an injury if he is forced to play against his will as he tries to push through a return to Ligue 1.

West Ham have stood firm in the face of several offers from Marseille, the highest of which reached £22m, and will refuse to be bullied into a sale on the cheap for last season’s player of the year. While all parties wait for a deal to be struck Payet is training with the Under 23s.

The club's stance is one that Ferdinand, who came through the West Ham youth system before departing for Leeds in 2000 in an £18m deal that made him the most expensive defender in the world, is entirely supportive of.

“If I was the gaffer there I would say, ‘Listen, until I get what I want for you money-wise, you can sit and rot’,” Ferdinand told reporters.

Payet has made clear that his desire for a West Ham exit is based on personal reasons; his family did not settle in London after his 2015 move and have already returned to the south of France ahead of the move.

Such is Payet’s desire to return home he has already made it clear that he would reject any interest from Chinese Super League clubs despite the lure of half a million pounds a month after tax.

The club are sympathetic to Payet’s problems settling but have taken a dim view of his attempts to force his way out of the London Stadium, as is Ferdinand, who believes the France international owes West Ham and its fans a degree of loyalty for the “platform” they gave him to make a name for himself last season.

“I look at it from when I played football. I would never have said, ‘I am not playing’,” Ferdinand added.

“I had problems at football clubs at various different times. At Manchester United I had problems with the club at various times with certain people but it never entered my mind not to play. You owe it to the club and the fans. Especially where Payet came from before he got to this club.

“They gave him the platform to play at the Euros last summer, they gave him a platform to get a new contract and to become a player that is known in the football world, and you have to respect that.”