Sporting beat Steaua Bucharest 5-1 in the second leg of the Champions League qualifiers last night, and guaranteed themselves a spot in the group stage.
The win is obviously much covered by the Portuguese sports newspapers on Thursday, with all having a few pages about it, so there wasn’t much room for them to speak about William Carvalho and West Ham.
As we’ve been covering in the past few days, all the local outlets use to have daily stories about the situation of the midfielder’s transfer to West Ham, but they are all in silence this time.
Battaglia, who will probably be happy to see Carvalho go to West Ham, was asked about the transfer.
Speaking to local journalists, Battaglia said: “I’m not here to talk about William, but you ask me if the club will miss him. Of course. He’s a great player, a very good player” (via O Jogo).
The story has hit a point that Sporting’s players and manager don’t feel obliged to pretend they know nothing about the potential West Ham transfer. Earlier this month, Jorge Jesus mocked West Ham after watching the club’s 4-0 defeat against Manchester United, and said Carvalho will have ‘some difficulty’ to find a spot in the team.
