London, July 27 (IANS) Music mogul Simon Cowell has taken an indirect dig at singer Liam Payne after praising the loyalty of the other members of One Direction.
Cowell praised "loyalty" of the other members of One Direction -- Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Niall Horan -- but didn't mention Payne, who recently signed a solo record deal with Capitol Records, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
"We're in touch with them all. The great thing about all these boys - well not all of them but most of them - they are incredibly loyal and you don't always expect that," Cowell said.
Leaving out Payne, he added: "Niall, Harry, Louis (are) amazing".
Payne announced the news of his new record deal last week but said One Direction would always be his "family".