Gustavo Sá Missing From Training Photos Only Fuels The West Ham Talk

By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)

Twenty training photos.

And not one of them featuring Gustavo Sá.

Now, this could just be 2+2=6. Football fans do that. We see a missing face and build a transfer saga out of thin air.

But… there may just be some truth to this one.

You Can’t Muzzle The Portuguese Press

No matter how quiet the Hammers’ recruitment team might wish to keep this one, there is no controlling the Portuguese press. Or, for that matter, the agents.

The journalists over there seem adamant an agreement is in place for the attacking midfielder who captains his country at Under-21 level.

Then this post from West Ham Central on X dropped into the timeline yesterday afternoon:

No Gustavo Sá present in 20 training photos posted on Famalicão’s Instagram this afternoon…

Make of that what you will.

From where I’m sitting, clubs don’t tend to parade a player they’re about to sell, and a captain missing from a full set of pre-season snaps is the sort of detail that tends to mean something.

As For The Player Himself

Possibly more impressive than the international armband is the fact he captains his club at the tender age of just 21.

Sá is an attacking midfielder by trade, though he spent the majority of last season deployed in central midfield.

Anyone expecting a direct replacement for Mateus Fernandes is going to be disappointed. He simply doesn’t have the former Hammer’s all-round game or athleticism.

Where He Could Actually Help

That said, Sá has excellent vision and a genuinely impressive range of passing.

Those are precisely the qualities Nuno’s side has been crying out for since Lucas Paquetá departed. Creativity has been in short supply, and here is a lad whose entire reputation is built on supplying it.

So no, he isn’t Fernandes. He was never going to be.

But if the Portuguese press are right… West Ham may just have found a decent first major signing of the summer.