Slaven Bilic insists Dimitri Payet will remain a West Ham United player despite growing speculation that the Frenchman is heading for the exit at the London Stadium.
Payet was part of West Ham's 2-0 defeat to Manchester United on Monday night, which saw Juan Mata and Zlatan Ibrahimovic score following Sofiane Feghouli's controversial sending off.
Bilic believes the 29-year-old player is helping the club improve after a tough first half of the Premier League season.
"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 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]."
West Ham hosts another Manchester club on Friday when Pep Guardiola's Manchester City travels to east London in the FA Cup third round.
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