West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan has claimed that Dimitri Payet did not speak to his team-mates for up to eight weeks before his exit from the club.
The France international rejoined Marseille in a £25 million deal on Sunday after refusing to play for Slaven Bilic's side.
Payet's exit doesn't make him a mercenary
And Sullivan has revealed that Payet's behaviour prior to his transfer request had hinted that something was not quite right.
"I think for the last six or eight weeks, he's not been talking to anybody in the squad," Sullivan told the BBC. "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 also revealed that negotiating the deal with Marseille had not been as smooth a process as he hoped.
"[Marseille] were very difficult to deal with," he 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 four or five hundred thousand so you get that there.
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"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?"
West Ham host Manchester City in their return to Premier League action at the London Stadium on Wednesday night.