Perhaps the most amusing transfer campaign of the Summer was West Ham's failed bid to attract Portuguese midfielder William Carvalho to the Olympic Stadium. Despite Carvalho expressing a willingness to move, the clubs could not agree terms and the negotiations descended into farce with the Sporting President making a series of unpleasant comments about the Hammers board, including referring to our esteemed Chairmen, Messrs Sullivan and Gold, as the 'Dildo brothers'!
Since then, the Hammers have experienced significant problems on and off the field and manager Slaven Bilic departed last month with the club sliding into the Premiership relegation zone. New manager David Moyes has yet to experience a victory with just a draw out of 4 Premiership games. Despite that, the spirited performance against Premiership leaders Man City away on Sunday will have raised hopes that the underperforming squad can rediscover some decent form.
Central to that will be seeing an improvement in the side's dominance during games as they managed less than 25% possession against City. The injection of new talent into their overrun midfield will be a big target in the January transfer window and it looks like the new found positivity between the clubs could well be the start of facilitating Carvalho's move to the Premiership. As the club's statement revealed "friendly relations between the clubs will resume and there will be no barriers to both clubs negotiating or working together in the future".
As for Carvalho, he has been performing well for Sporting both in the Portuguese League and the Champions League. The latter included an impressive performance against Barcelona that suggests he would be likely to cope well with the pressures of the Premiership. Either way, the Hammers need to move on from moral victories (such as the Man City defeat) to accruing some points!
