A deal to bring Sporting Lisbon midfielder William Carvalho to the club could yet be saved, according to an exclusive report from International Business Times.
A deal to sign the Portugal international in the summer ended up with emails being leaked by the club and Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho going public on the poor conduct of David Sullivan during negotations, calling Sullivan and Gold the “Dildo Brothers” in the process.
It was just another event to add to the long list of embarrasing things that have happened at the club under the current regime, but a deal for the midfielder could still go ahead.
The IBT report quotes Bruno de Carvalho as saying that he has put the “soap opera” of that deal behind him and that he would not rule out dealing with British clubs in the future, despite having such a woeful experience with West Ham.
He said: “If we close this soap that is not interesting.
“It is not good for anybody because the fans deserve better, the truth, our respect. The fans are the most important thing at the club. So if we finish what was a strange soap, let’s see.
“But I don’t know if they will finish, because it was very, very strange. But I continue with a very good impression of the English clubs.”
It could be said that the failure to close out a deal for Carvalho had a small part to play in the team’s awful start to the season and the eventual sacking of Slaven Bilic, who had appeared keen on signing the player while David Sullivan claimed Bilic had turned the player down.
The holding midfield role is one that we so desperately need to fill, even with David Moyes now in charge, and if the club are able to re-enter negotiations in January then they really must not think twice about it.
But would William Carvalho want to come to the club now? Not just after everything that has happened and been said between the two clubs but also given the team’s current form and position in the Premier League table.
A switch to West Ham is far less attractive now than it was a few months ago and that’s now Moyes’ job, to rebuild West Ham’s crumbling reputation and league position.
With Bruno de Carvalho not ruling out a future deal, perhaps there may be a chance of seeing the powerful midfielder in claret and blue after all, but let’s not hold our breath just yet. We all know what Sullivan is like.
William Carvalho is valued at £22.5m by transfermarkt.com.
