West Ham’s Sullivan hit by ‘liar’ accusations
A director at Sporting Lisbon yesterday launched an astonishing attack on West Ham co-chairman David Sullivan, calling him “a liar” and “a parasite” for claiming William Carvalho had been offered to the Premier League side on transfer deadline day.
Sullivan told West Ham’s official website on Friday night that the Portuguese club had contacted him on Thursday to say they would accept a club-record bid for the midfielder, one they had previously rejected.
But Nuno Saraiva, Sporting’s director of communications, has denied the claims and instead hit out at Sullivan, who made his fortune in the adult entertainment industry, in a statement on his Facebook page.
“David Sullivan is lying,” Saraiva said. “Sporting Clube de Portugal, as its chairman has already said, has received no offer for the player William Carvalho. The football business is not an adult film set on which all obscenities are allowed. This intellectual pornography is not worthy of a head of a football club.” He added: “Sporting Clube de Portugal is challenging him [Sullivan] to publish the proposals that he said were made, as well as the proof that Sporting CP received them.”
He said: “We have nothing to do with the behaviour of businessmen or family members who live off the players and who go around offering them from club to club at bargain basement prices, without any mandate, as if they were cheap supermarket produce. It devalues players, it devalues the club, and it creates unfortunate situations like this one, which has forced Sporting Club to take drastic measures to defend itself from these characters who live off some players like parasites.”
The Sunday Telegraph was unable to contact Sullivan directly last night but he was quoted disputing the claims on the Claret & Hugh blog.
“They are not true!” Sullivan is reported to have said. “But he [Saraiva] can’t admit publicly that he was prepared to sell him. Our bid was submitted via the player’s agent and our negotiators in Portugal. We also put in a written bid.”