West Ham should have zero regrets over Dimitri Payet transfer fee

West Ham sold star player Dimitri Payet last month to Marseille, but have since expressed regret at the £25 million transfer fee they accepted.

West Ham United did the sensible thing in January by selling wantaway Dimitri Payet as quickly as possible, for as much money as possible. However, West Ham co-owner David Gold is now expressing regret over the fee the Hammers received for the playmaker, reports Sky Sports.

Gold insists that Payet, on an open market, could perhaps fetch between £30-£35 million instead of the £25 million West Ham accepted from Marseille. Gold also mentions that Marseille was the only club that Payet wanted to join, and this, too, depreciated the Frenchman’s price tag.

These things are all true. They’re also all things that went against the selling club. However, given the circumstances, West Ham did well to get the deal done relatively smoothly. Could Payet have brought in £30 million or even a little more? Of course.

But everybody can clearly see how much the team have picked up in form since Payet exited the scene. Whilst Payet was around, people were speculating that West Ham could be a surprise relegation candidate.

Now Payet is no longer in the picture, those whispers have disappeared completely. The true value in the Payet sale for West Ham goes deeper than however many millions are in the bank from the transfer fee.

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It’s the positive knock-on effect that the sale has had on the rest of the team. Payet probably did go for £5-10 million less than he is worth. But if Marseille refused to buy at that price, then Payet would have been stuck at the club for the remainder of the season.

How would that have effected morale? Would the club still be in increasingly improving form now? Payet’s exit could now be the difference between finishing in the bottom eight and finishing in the top eight.

Given the difference in prize money for each position in the Premier League, that itself could even cover the extra millions that Gold and Co. wanted for Payet. Then there’s the player’s salary if he had stayed for the remainder of the season.

What’s £5-10 million when you consider all of the benefits to just getting Payet out of the club? If the fee was £15 million, then the Hammers board would be right to feel they have been slighted in some way.

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But given the circumstances, the actual figures involved, and what has transpired since Payet was removed from the equation, the Payet deal couldn’t have gone much better. The benefits easily out-weigh the drawback of a few extra million.

All things considered, the Hammers board should be very happy with how they handled what was a difficult situation.