Dimitri Payet paid back January wages and didn't speak to West Ham teammates for eight weeks

Payet gave the club back between £400,000 and £500,000 after refusing to play

Olympique Marseille new player Dimitri Payet, gestures as he speaks with the media during a press conference, in Marseille (AP)

Dimitri Payet isolated himself to such an extent that he didn’t speak to his West Ham teammates for eight weeks before his £25m move back to Marseille, according to co-chairman David Sullivan.

The Frenchman finally sealed his return to Marseille on Monday after refusing to play for the club earlier this month.

The Hammers were initially unwilling to sell their talisman but Sullivan admitted it became near-impossible to keep Payet at the London Stadium.

“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.”

Sullivan was also very disparaging of the way Marseille went about negotiating the transfer, and revealed that Payet paid the club back his January wages.

“(Marseille) were very difficult to deal with,” he added. “They're lucky we accepted the £25million. 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?”