Marseilles ‘split’ spells trouble for Payet

Payet with his long time agent Jacques Olivier Auguste who may have been the architect of a disaster for his client

West Ham look like having an easy decision to make over the sale of Dimitri Payet if latest reports turn out to be true.

New speculation claims that Marseilles are refusing to go above £25 million for the player which is nowhere enough for the Hammers.

We have been told that £23 million has been offered and rejected and it seems highly unlikely that the French club will raise it by the minimum £7 million being demanded by the Hammers.

And it is now being reported there is a split amongst Marseilles officials with some wanting to abandon the pursuit who at one time carried a £100 Hammers million price tag.

Others remain to continue but it would take a huge amount of pride swallowing for the Hammers to sell him for a quarter of the fee placed on his head by David Sullivan in the summer.

West Ham have a problem not dissimilar to Marseilles’ in that our board are under pressure to sell the mutinous midfielder from the manager and squad whilst there’s an obvious desire to get the best price posssible either now or later.

However, unless there’s a big change of heart from Marseilles it seems unlikely that the Irons will give way leaving Payet to sweat it out until the summer following what would become the worst possible advice from his advisers.