West Ham Linked With Yet More Portuguese Stars as William Carvalho Deal Stalls

West Ham could be set to shift their focus from William Carvalho to his Sporting CP teammates Adrien Silva and Joao Palhinha, after growing frustrated with the demands for the 25-year-old defensive midfielder.

The Hammers have been linked with Carvalho for some time and lodged a bid for the Portuguese international, but the deal has hit a snag with Sporting increasing their fee demands.

However despite struggling to nail down a price for Carvalho, Sport Witness have reported (via Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticas) that Slaven Bilic's side could turn their attentions to more Sporting stars in the form of Silva and Palhinha.

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West Ham have apparently made a bid of €30m for the duo, to which Sporting have responded and asked for a further €5m for bonuses, with the bid expected to reach the Lisbon-based side by the end of they day.

With a deal for Carvalho seemingly off the table, a midfielder is one of Bilic's main priorities for the remainder of the summer. 

Silva has been a Sporting player since 2007 making over 200 appearances and was also part of Portugal's victorious European Championship campaign in France.

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The 25-year-old has previously been linked with Premier League rivals Tottenham and Leicester earlier on in the window. Palhinha is a lesser known quantity and spent the first half of last season on loan at Belenenses.

He rejoined Sporting for the second half of the campaign and featured 11 times for the Portuguese club last campaign and has featured twice  for the Under-20 national squad.