Sporting chief hits out at West Ham board over Carvalho transfer

Sporting’s communications chief Nuno Saraiva has hit out at claims made by West Ham co-chairman David Sullivan that the Premier League outfit had an offer for William Carvalho accepted.

It was claimed in a statement released by Sullivan on the West Ham website on Friday that the Hammers lodged a club-record bid to sign Carvalho midway through August only for the offer to be turned down by the Portuguese outfit.

However, Sullivan revealed that Sporting reversed their decision and accepted the original offer on deadline day, only for the Hammers to run out of time to get a record-breaking deal over the line.

Carvalho missed out on the chance to leave the Portuguese giants over the summer, but Sariva has rubbished Sullivan’s claims and urged them to back them up to the fans.

“No proposal arrived for the player William Carvalho,” he said on Facebook, via Sky Sports. “Mr Sullivan has a duty to prove what he says. For this reason, Sporting Clube de Portugal challenge him to publicly show the proposals he says have been made, as well as the evidence that Sporting CP has received them.”

Since August 2016, only Danilo Pereira (177) has won possession in the middle third more times than Carvalho (173) in the Portuguese Liga NOS.