Olympique Lyon director of football Vincent Ponsot has explained the sale of Lucas Paqueta to West Ham United.

Ponsont says Paqueta's departure was all about the finances involved.

He said, "There is an economic aspect and another of whether the player wants to be part of the project or not. The change from last year was said to be having players involved in the project. You have to want to stay. With Lucas, we had discussions in March, April and even during the summer because there weren't necessarily the clubs he was hoping for.

"But his position has always been very clear: he wanted to leave. We recruited in anticipation of this departure. I think that in the midfield, we have all the qualities to perform.

"From the moment he agreed with a club, even if we were hoping for a bigger club, we entered into the discussion and we wanted to defend OL's economic interests as well as possible. He was very clear and his position never changed even with the arrival of John Textor."