Sunday 3 September 2017 18:48, UK
West Ham are suing a Sporting Lisbon official for libel after he claimed the Hammers never made an offer for William Carvalho.
Sporting's communications director Nuno Saraiva claimed on Saturday the club had received no proposal for Carvalho before going on to make a series of controversial remarks on social media about West Ham co-chairman David Sullivan.
West Ham say they have proof a written offer was made to Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho.
David Sullivan Jr, the son of West Ham's co-chairman, confirmed on social media the club intend to take legal action against Saraiva.
Sporting were thought to be playing hardball with West Ham after rejecting a reported club-record bid for Portugal international Carvalho earlier this summer.
Earlier this week, Sullivan claimed Sporting had indicated a willingness to conclude a Deadline Day deal for the 25-year-old midfielder.
"It is no secret that we made a club record bid for Sporting Lisbon's William Carvalho but unfortunately that offer was rejected a couple of weeks ago," he said.
"Late last night Sporting Lisbon made contact to accept the original offer but unfortunately it was just too late in the day, and we simply did not have enough time to put the player through a medical.
"We were not prepared, as a club, to buy a player for that amount of money without him having gone through adequate medical checks."
