A director of Sporting Lisbon has refuted West Ham joint-chairman David Sullivan's claims that the Premier League club rejected a chance to buy William Carvalho.
Sullivan said West Ham had lodged an unsuccessful bid for the midfielder earlier in the summer, but that Sporting reached out just before the transfer window closed on Thursday night to say they were now willing to accept the offer.
West Ham rejected the deal because there was no time for Carvalho to have a medical, according to Sullivan, but Sporting's director of communication said no offer was ever made.
"David Sullivan is lying," Nuno Saraiva wrote on his Facebook page. "Sporting Clube de Portugal, as its chairman has already said, has received no offer for the player William Carvalho.
"The football business is a not an adult film set on which all obscenities are allowed. This intellectual pornography is not worthy of a head of a football club."
Saraiva then called on Sullivan to back up his claims by making the offer sheets public.
"David Sullivan has the duty of proving what he said. Sporting Clube de Portugal is challenging him to publish the proposals that he said were made, as well as the proof that Sporting CP received them.
"One thing is clear: Sporting CP, as we have said, does not cut the legs off its players. But we have nothing to do with the behaviour of business men 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."
Sullivan also said Hammers manager Slaven Bilic turned down the change to sign Renato Sanches and Grzegorz Krychowiak, who went to Swansea and West Brom, respectively.
West Ham did bring in a number of new signings over the summer, including Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez.