West Ham United co-chairman faced a lot of criticism from the club's fans after he essentially threw manager Slaven Bilic under the bus by claiming he did not want any more players to be signed in a bizarre statement on the club's website, but it seems the supporters were not the only ones upset.
In his statement, Sullivan claimed that the club had submitted a record bid for Sporting Lisbon player William Carvalho, but insisted that the selling club wanted £40m which was out of their price range.
Many West Ham fans branded Sullivan a liar as this was not the first time he was caught out for talking up the club's interest in a player to make it look like they were trying to secure big name targets when they actually were never officially interested, but now, incredibly, Sporting Lisbon have now called him a liar as well.
In a statement released on Facebook, the club's director of communication launched a stunning attack on Sullivan, labelling him a liar and a parasite.
Mr. David Sullivan is lying. As Sporting's President affirmed, no offer whatsoever arrived for William Carvalho.
The football industry is not the platform of an adult film in which any obscenity is allowed. As such being a director of a football club requires much more than this intellectual pornography. Mr David Sullivan has the duty to prove his statements. As such Sporting Clube de Portugal challenges him to publicly reveal the transfer offers that he claimed to have made as well as the confirmations that Sporting would've given had we received the offers.
One thing is certain, Sporting doesn't cut the legs from under our players [Never heard this saying but think he's saying we don't hold our players ransom]. We have nothing to do with the actions of family members or agents who live off of the players' salary and offer them to clubs at discount prices, without permission or mandate, treating the situation like a supermarket and devaluing both the player and the club which creates lamentable situations in which Sporting has felt the need to take more drastic measures to defend the players from these characters who are parasites in the lives of the athletes.
Well that escalated quickly.
West Ham fans will feel vindicated, as those claims are exactly what they have accused the West Ham owners of doing.
The language is particularly impressive, as to use words such as 'intellectual pornography' in a takedown of another football club's owner is something you just don't see, but clearly they feel very strongly about David Sullivan.
