West Ham United owner David Gold: 'Dimitri Payet worth £50m'

West Ham United co-owner David Gold has claimed that Dimitri Payet is worth twice what they sold him for.

The France international returned to his homeland to join to Marseille in a £25m deal, but Gold believes that he could have fetched up to £50m.

"He's worth between £40-50m," he told BT Sport. "In the open market he'd have fetched at least £35m."

However, Gold insists that offloading the wantaway Payet has had a morale-boosting affect at West Ham.

"It is stronger in the sense that the morale is great now," he added. "There was a period of time, a couple of months ago, where morale was reducing.

"We had to make that decision, we didn't want him to leave and were desperate to keep him. The manager wanted to build the team around Dimitri but, sadly, sometimes it becomes impossible.

"You do everything you can and then you suddenly realise 'this isn't going to work' and you bite the bullet. He's let the fans down, he's let the football club down and I'm hugely disappointed."

West Ham brought in new players during the winter transfer window, snapping up Jose Fonte from Southampton and Robert Snodgrass from Hull City.