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Before you start reading this, let’s make something clear: the Portuguese press, in general, doesn’t have a clue about what’s happening between Sporting and West Ham for the transfer of William Carvalho.

Four different newspapers are covering the story today, and all of them have different information. Which means that at least three of them are wrong.

Starting with A Bola, they make a mix of English and Portuguese reports to say West Ham are very close to reaching what Sporting are demanding.

The latest reports from England said the Hammers have £34m to spend on the midfielder, which in their conversion is €37.2m. So that’s just €800k from the €38m asked by Sporting.

Then we’re off to Jornal de Notícias, who claim the difference is actually €5m. The Lisbon club would be asking for €37m and the Hammers putting €32m on the table, despite the club’s wish to raise it to €35m soon.

West Ham would also want to negotiate the bonuses better, because the ones suggested by Sporting are far too easy to be achieved.

The Portuguese side want €5m in bonuses, getting half of it for each time the player makes 15 appearances for the Hammers. The total of 30 games could obviously be reached before the end of the season, so West Ham want something harder to get.

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Now comes the strangest part, which is covered by Record and O Jogo. They write the completely opposite thing in today’s issues.

Starting with Record, they claim West Ham have lost their patience, and want the deal done before the weekend. It’s claimed Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho started asking for €40m plus €5m in bonuses, and then accepted to make it €38m + €5m.

West Ham accepted most of his demands, including to pay for the solidarity mechanism, but still want the initial amount to be €35m .

And O Jogo, with the most complete story, mention an ‘ultimatum’ made by Bruno de Carvalho forcing West Ham to conclude the deal before the weekend. So the hurry is not from the Hammers, but from Sporting.

The president would like to have time to find a replacement and wants things to be sorted quickly. The problem is that Sporting’s board believe West Ham are taking advantage of Carvalho’s desire for the deal, and trying to use it to their advantage.

They say West Ham offered €37m, and Sporting want something close to his €45m release clause, so there’s still a big difference. Anther problem is that the London side want the payment to be made over two years, whilst Carvalho wants €20m up front and the rest in January.

So after all the different versions of the story you can just pick one and choose what to believe. We’re going with O Jogo here.