Pau recently announced the signing of Steffon Armitage.

When Mourad Boudjellal revealed Steffon Armitage had asked to leave Toulon, many commentators presumed that the openside flanker would return to England to resume his international career. As Wasps were reportedly interested in the player, such a suggestion was not without foundation.

However, events in France began to move quickly when La Provence reported Lyon made an offer to buy out the remainder of Armitage’s contract.

Although Lyon could not be discounted as a potential destination for the openside, few expected the former European Player of The Year to join the newly promoted Top 14 club.

Nevertheless, when Sud Ouest not only claimed Armitage was in ‘advanced talks’ with Pau, but had visited the club’s training ground, it seemed inevitable that the five times capped English international would remain in France.

Indeed, the following day, L’Equipe confirmed the flanker had signed a three year deal with Pau.

Strangely though, despite the amount of interest in the story and Boudjellal’s demand for ‘compensation’, few details of the transfer emerged in the media.

That all changed this morning however, with Midi Olympique claiming Pau paid Toulon €250,000 to buy out the final year of Armitage’s contract.

We will have to wait and see if a quarter of a million Euro represents value for money.

Talking of cash, @midi_olympique claims Pau paid Toulon €250,000 to buy Steffon Armitage out of the last year of his contract — gavin mortimer (@gavinmortimer7) June 3, 2016

Alan Drumm, Pundit Arena