West Ham grow frustrated in bid to sign William Carvalho as Sporting Lisbon hold out for extra £5mWest Ham United are beginning to grow frustrated in their attempts to sign William Carvalho from Sporting Lisbon as the two clubs still remain ?6 million (£5.5m) apart in their valuations for the midfielder.
West Ham have offered ?32m (£29.1m) for Carvalho plus ?5m (£4.55m) in add-ons. Sporting are holding out for ?38m (£34.6m) plus ?5m in add-ons and despite extensive negotiations have not yet budged.
No other club has, as yet, made a serious offer for Carvalho this summer and West Ham remain confident that a deal can be done, not least because the 25-year-old holding midfielder wants to join them.Carvalho is regarded as the final piece in the jigsaw during this transfer window by West Ham manager Slaven Bilic, with the club having already brought in Marko Arnautovic for a club-record fee of up to £24m, which will be eclipsed if the Portuguese international is signed, as well as Javier Hernandez, Joe Hart and Pablo Zabaleta.
All are expected to be first-team regulars with Carvalho the holding player as Bilic re-shapes his side into a more regular 4-3-3 formation.
West Ham got off to a disappointing start to the campaign, beaten heavily by Manchester United last weekend, but there is optimism that the changes they have made will significantly improve the team. They face Southampton, again away, this Saturday.
Carvalho, a product of Sporting’s academy, has long been linked with a move to the Premier League and has decided that now is the time for him to leave Portugal to further his career. He did not play in the first leg of Sporting’s Champions League play-off tie at home to Steaua Bucharest but that was because he was suspended.
There is a feeling that Sporting want to get the tie out of the way, with the second leg next weekend following a goalless draw, before they decide Carvalho’s future. They have already signed a possible replacement in midfielder Rodrigo Battaglia.
West Ham, meanwhile, have put midfielder Robert Snodgrass up for sale even though the Scottish international only signed for them for £10.2m from Hull City last January.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/08/18/west-ham-grow-frustrated-bid-sign-william-carvalho-sporting/