The director of Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon has called into doubt the veracity of a statement made by David Sullivan on West Ham's website regarding William Carvalho.
Sullivan, speaking via whufc.com on Sunday evening claimed that Sporting had offered the Portuguese international to West Ham on deadline day at the same terms which had intially been rejected.However that prompted to a furious response from Sporting's Nuno Saraiva, who insisted that West Ham had made no such bid, that Sullivan's claims were damaging his club's reputation and that his comments equated to "intellectual pornography".
"David Sullivan lies," read a translated version of Saraiva's response, posted via social media. "There was no proposal presented for the player William Carvalho.
"The football industry is not the plateau of an adult film in which all obscenities are allowed. For this reason, the boss of a club requires much more than this intellectual pornography.
'Mr Sullivan has a duty to prove what he says. For this reason, Sporting CP challenges him to publicly show the proposals he says have been made, as well as the evidence that Sporting CP has received them."
And the chances of West Ham snapping up Carvalho in the January transfer window - or any subsequent window - appear to be slim to none, after Saraiva inisisted that he would no longer have anything to do with individuals that act in such a reprehensible manner.
"We'll have nothing to do with businessmen or relatives who live at the expense of players and who are offering them from club to club at a price of balance, without a mandate, as if cheap merchandise supermarket," he added.
"This devalues the athlete and the club, and creates lamentable situations that have already forced, in this case, Sporting Clube de Portugal to take drastic measures to defend against these characters that are parasitises in the lives of some players."
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