Slaven Bilic Confident That West Ham Will Sign Sporting Star William Carvalho
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic remains confident over a deal for Sporting CP midfielder William Carvalho.
The transfer for the Portugal international has stalled in recent weeks but Bilic, who has seen his side lose their first two Premier League matches, believes Carvalho will be a Hammers player by the end of the summer window.
“It’s hard to be objective,” Bilic said, as quoted by the Guardian. “But I am quite confident.”
Sunderland midfielder Didier Ndong has been linked as a potential alternative to Carvalho should the deal fail to be concluded, with Ndong playing in all four of the Black Cats' Championship fixtures this season, but Bilic has ruled out such a move.
“It’s too late for anything else, so no,” he added.
“That’s it. But I hope we are going to get him.”
Teenager Declan Rice recently started in midfield for the Hammers during the 3-2 loss at Southampton, playing alongside Mark Noble before being replaced by Pedro Obiang, and Bilic admits the club need to sign another centre midfielder.
“It’s the position we have been trying to do for a couple of seasons,” Bilic said. “I feel we need someone to boost our team and quality. That’s why we also offloaded some players to get the budget for him or for another player in that position.
“The quality player and not the quantity one, a squad player. They are not easy to get, but we are doing our best and hopefully we will do it. We are not talking about boosting our squad but our game.”
