West Ham United have confirmed that Dimitri Payet has completed a move to Marseille in a £25m deal.
Widespread reports claimed that the Hammers put a £30m price tag on the French playmaker, but after weeks of negotiations, the Hammers have accepted a lower offer.
Earlier this month, manager Slaven Bilic revealed that the 29-year-old informed him that he no longer wanted to play for the club, and from that point was ordered to train with the Under-23s.
Now, the Premier League outfit have confirmed that Payet has left, just one-and-a-half years after joining from Marseille for a figure in the region of £10m.
Joint chairman David Sullivan has criticised the Frenchman's conduct, revealing that the board wanted to keep him in order to "make an example" of the wantaway star.
He told West Ham's official website: "The club would like to place on record its sincere disappointment that Dimitri Payet did not show the same commitment and respect to West Ham United that the club and fans showed him, particularly when it rewarded him with a lucrative new five-and-half-year deal only last year.
"I would like to make it clear that we have no financial need to sell our best players and that the decision to allow Payet to leave was in accordance with the wishes of the manager and the interests of squad unity. To be frank, my board and I would have preferred for him to have stayed in order to make an example of him, as no player is bigger than the club.
"I am confident that with the quality of the players we have brought in during January already, the squad will be stronger at the end of this transfer window than it was at the start."
During his time at West Ham, Payet scored 11 goals and registered 18 assists.
Danielle Joynson
