Yesterday, the English press broke the news West Ham United are going to sue Sporting CP for their reaction to William Carvalho’s failed transfer.
And as we’ve already said, the Hammers probably had no idea of the kind of club they were dealing with, because this fight won’t end so soon.
And the return fire didn’t take long to show up.
So it’s now Sporting who are planning to file a report against West Ham, according to the Portuguese club’s director of communications Nuno Saraiva.
The Lisbon club didn’t officially comment, so Saraiva used his personal Facebook account to question the veracity of West Ham’s leaked offer, claiming that Sporting never received that email, and also said the Hammers acted wrongly when speaking to the player.
He divides his post into four topics:
“1 – Why were the recipients of this so-called e-mail hidden?
2 – Where are the delivery receipts that prove that these alleged emails arrived to Sporting CP?
3 – The West Ham supporters themselves attribute so much credibility to this alleged correspondence that they mock their leaders everywhere.
4 – Sporting Clube de Portugal will file a complaint with FIFA against West Ham for attempting to attract their player, which violates all regulations. And will require full disclosure of these alleged emails that, to be true, were never sent to Sporting CP.”
Sporting don’t usually bluff in these cases, it would be no surprise if they take it as far as they can.
It would be very odd for West Ham to leak emails never sent, especially when those emails don’t reflect well on the club, so it remains a mystery as to who is telling the truth.
What is clear is West Ham have dealt appallingly with their Carvalho pursuit.
The Premier League club have either been clouded by arrogance or simply not been bothered to research Sporting prior to making their offer, and prior to their subsequent reactions.
If West Ham’s aim all along was truly to sign Carvalho, rather than provide a show for their fans, then they simply should have gone about it a better way.
Offering €25m spread over 3 payments, with bonuses relating to Champions League qualification, and even those coming with a caveat, is bad enough on its own. Then insisting that offer must be accepted quickly or ‘we’ll be borrowing aplayer from PSG’ is laughable.
