West Ham’s version of transfer events has been called into question twice this week. Sporting Lisbon questioned David Sullivan’s statement on the West Ham official website by claiming they had never received a formal bid from the Hammers and today a French newspaper claimed West Ham agreed on a deal with Rennes for Sakho only to change their minds later.

The likelihood is that football agents have played a big role as the go betweens and this is the real reason for the different versions of events and both sides feeling aggrieved.

William Carvalho had been represented by super agent Jorge Mendes, but the player has dropped his firm Gestifute earlier this year to sign with Media Base Sports, run by Pere Guardiola (brother of Pep Guardiola)

It is likely that it is Pere Guardiola is the man who holds the key to the whole messy dispute and knows who  knew what when and is the man who needs to answer questions posed by both sides.

The same could be said of Mark Mackay and Diafra Sakho, prior to the Sakho deadline day pantomime, rumours came out of France from reliable sources that Sakho was been offered to Ligue 1 clubs. The question is who was offering him around to the clubs and who authorised him to do so?  What role did the son of  Willie MacKay have in the Sakho affair?