Payet 'isolated himself' at West Ham

Joint-chairman of West Ham David Sullivan has claimed that Dimitri Payet did not speak to anybody at the club for the last 'six or eight weeks' before moving to Marseille.

After protracted negotiations, the France international finally moved back to the his former club after the Hammers accepted a bid of £25m.

Once manager Slaven Bilic publicly stated his midfielder no longer wanted to play for the east London club it appeared inevitable he would be sold.

However, Sullivan has claimed he wanted to let the 29-year-old rot in the reserves before his hand was eventually forced.

“I think for the last six or eight weeks, he’s not been talking to anybody in the squad,” Sullivan told the BBC.

“He’s gone to the corner of a room for his meals and isolated himself from everybody. Before that, he was bubbly and happy, shakes everyone’s hand before the match.

“Either it was a tactic or something in his head had changed. The team wanted him out. The manager, with the greatest reluctance, wanted him out. And as much as we didn’t want him out, you can’t go against the consensus of the team and manager.

“[Marseille] were very difficult to deal with.

“They’re lucky we accepted the £25m. I think he’s worth more than that. The player’s surrendered his January wages, which is another £400,000 or £500,000 so you get that there.

“There’s a little bit of dignity we got with that. That was a deal breaker to us. Our attitude was you’ve refused to play – why should you get paid?”

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