West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady believes former manager Slaven Bilic never recovered after Dimitri Payet forced a transfer through to Marseille.
Payet left the Hammers in January to join Marseille after he declared he no longer wanted to play for the club. The Frenchman was an important player to the side at the time. He made 60 appearances for the club between 2015 and 2017, scoring 15 times.
Brady believes that the departure of Payet was a key moment in Bilic's reign as manager as the 49-year-old began to 'run out of ideas' afterwards.
Bilic was sacked on Monday after West Ham found themselves in the regulation zone, with just nine points from 11 Premier League games.