As Benfica and Porto worked quietly in the summer window this year, it’s Sporting who are getting most of the attention from the Portuguese press, especially because of the recent controversial business they were involved in.
Sporting have a reputation of not selling their stars easily, but it seems things went over the top this summer, as not even their fans approve the way the board acted.
William Carvalho was rumoured to be keen on a move for months, maybe years, and the collapsed transfer with West Ham became quite a media circus.
Instead of arguing with West Ham helping to get the fans onboard, it seems to have done the opposite.
O Jogo conducted a poll asking Sporting fans if they’re happy with the way the club managed Adrien Silva’s and Willian’s negotiations. 45% said no, 36.7% said yes, and 18.3% didn’t answer or didn’t know what to say.
As we’ve covered in the past few weeks, Bruno de Carvalho started a media war with West Ham when giving an exclusive interview to the club’s channel. He was much accused of making of it his ‘personal show’.
All of this happened because the clubs couldn’t find an agreement for the transfer, and then started accusing each other of various things.
Now as well as having a player unsatisfied with the situation, Sporting have a big section of their fans unhappy with the way the West Ham saga went.
