David Sullivan has revealed that Sporting Lisbon had accepted a deal for Sporting Lisbon star William Carvalho, however it was ‘too late in the day’ to complete a deal for the Portugal international.
The Hammers had chased Carvalho for a number of weeks towards the back end of this summer’s transfer window, coming close to securing the services of the 25-year-old on a number of occasions, only for a deal to fall through with the two clubs unable to agree on a fee.
However late Friday evening, it has been disclosed that Sporting had accepted West Ham’s original offer for the player but a deal could not be completed as time had run out.
“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.” said Sullivan speaking on whufc.com.
“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.”
Carvalho has been heavily linked with a move to the Premier League for a number of years now with fellow Londoners Arsenal, however it was the Hammer who emerged as shock favourite to land the sought after midfielder this summer.
“We were not prepared, as a club, to buy a player for that amount of money without him having gone through adequate medical checks.”
