‘Payet ate meals by himself in the corner of a room’

Dimitri Payet didn’t talk to any of his team-mates for the “last six or eight weeks” he was at West Ham, according to co-chairman David Sullivan.

The Hammers chief opened up over Payet’s transfer to Marseille by accusing the midfielder of lacking “commitment and respect” near the end of his time at the club.

Payet moved to the Ligue 1 side for £25million late on Sunday evening and Sullivan has claimed the Frenchman isolated himself from his team-mates.

“I think for the last six or eight weeks, he’s not been talking to anybody in the squad,” Sullivan told BBC Radio 5Live.

“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.”

And Sullivan has also insisted that Marseille were “lucky” to get the money they did after proving “difficult” to negotiate with.

“(Marseille) were very difficult to deal with,” Sullivan added.

“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?”