West Ham were heavily linked with Gustavo Sá before his move to Nottingham Forest. However, the midfielder has now poured cold water on that story.
Reports at the time had Sá heading towards London and potentially joining the Hammers from Portuguese side Famalicão – until it ultimately fell off and he signed for Forest. There was just one rather significant problem: the player himself knew nothing about it.
He has now explained where he actually was when those claims started flying around.
“I honestly know zero about that”
Speaking to Liga Portugal’s videocast, Sá was directly asked about the reported West Ham opportunity. His answer couldn’t have been much clearer.
“I honestly know zero about that,” Sá said. “Of course I remember when the stories came out I was with my girlfriend at Azurara beach, in Vila do Conde.”
“I started getting bombarded with messages and stories saying I was on my way to London for West Ham, and that’s the most I ever knew about it.”
So while reports had Sá travelling to England, the midfielder was actually sitting on a beach in Portugal wondering what was going on.
He says nobody ever informed him of talks with West Ham. Nor did he know anything about the clubs reaching an agreement.
“I never had knowledge of negotiations,” he explained. “I never had knowledge of an agreement between clubs. Again, I never knew anything.”
Sá even admitted he became curious himself after seeing all the talk. The interviewer joked that he was supposedly on his way to England without knowing about it, something the midfielder could only laugh about.
That’s about as strong a denial as West Ham can get from the player himself.
So whatever was happening behind the scenes with West Ham, it clearly never reached the player. Forest eventually gave him the move to England he’d been linked with anyway – just via a very different route.
