A few days before Nils Koppen was announced as West Ham’s director of recruitment, a juicy transfer story was leaked to the Portuguese media that 20-year-old phenom Gustavo Sá was on his way to East London. It made some sense. Sá was looking to go to a bigger club; the Hammers have a popular Portuguese manager in Nuno Espirito Santo, and the player had worked with newly appointed assistant Rui Pedro Silva. Even the fee was reasonable at £17 million. Two of the outlets are well respected and known to break news. Record, a trusted news source in Portugal, reported it first, and it was confirmed a day later by V+, which is made up of contributors from multiple news companies, including Público and Observador.
The only issue with the rumor was that Sá had just signed with super agent Jorge Mendes, who also represents Nuno and played a big role in delivering Pablo Felipe and Taty Castellanos to West Ham in January.
The rumors were followed by Sá’s absence from pre-season training with his club Famalicão. One Portuguese outlet had him tracked on a flight from an airport in Portugal headed to London. And then?
Nothing.
The reports went cold. Only Yahoo Sports UK reported anything about the potential signing, with no rumors confirmed from transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano and even West Ham insider ExWHUEmployee, as he’s known on X, said that Sá was not close to signing with the club. He went on to say that he believed the rumors were being used as leverage to encourage FC Porto or Sporting CP, the two biggest clubs in Portugal, to come and sign him. There are no reports about either club showing interest at this time. Throughout last season, it was reported that both clubs had inquired about the attacking midfielder. The West Ham expert even said that Sá’s name has not come up in meetings between Nuno and Koppen.
Since the season ended, criticisms of Nuno’s pursuit of Pablo Felipe grew louder. Having joined West Ham during a relegation battle, Pablo failed to score one Premier League goal, despite coming in with a reputation as a talisman. In just 13 matches with Portuguese side Gil Vicente, Pablo found the back of the net 10 times, but could not find the same form in a West Ham kit. While his energy was infectious and he brought a great attitude and work ethic, many question whether spending 20 million to get him to East London was money well spent. Or was it Jorge Mendes being Jorge Mendes?
So let's figure out what exactly happened. Mendes, freshly signed as Sá's representative, plants a story in his home market connecting his new client to the most high-profile club available that would plausibly want a player of his profile. Also, he used his connection to Nuno and his history of delivering the manager his clients. It costs nothing. It generates immediate interest across English-language football media. It establishes a market price. It tells Sporting, Benfica, and Porto that there are serious foreign suitors in the room. And it does all of this without requiring West Ham to actually make a bid, sign anything, or commit to anything at all. This is not a new playbook. Mendes has been running versions of it for twenty years.
To be fair to those who ran with the story, there is a real connection that makes the Sá-to-West-Ham narrative genuinely plausible rather than entirely invented. Mendes also used Rui Pedro Silva, who actually gave Sá his senior debut back in 2021 when Silva was managing in Portugal. When Silva left Famalicão, he reportedly said he was "sorry not to have continued working with him." That is a genuine personal endorsement from someone now inside the West Ham coaching structure, and it is the kind of detail that transforms a speculative link into something that feels substantive.
There is a further structural issue that should have made any serious journalist pause before running the story as fact: West Ham were not in a position to be agreeing deals for anyone in the first week of July. Koppen had only just been confirmed; the club's own announcement came on July 4, the same weekend the Sá story was circulating, and he had not yet sat down formally with Nuno to agree on a transfer strategy. That timeline makes it essentially impossible that a fee for Sá had been "agreed" before Koppen was even in the building.
The more uncomfortable observation is about the ecosystem that amplified the story once it was out. Several prominent West Ham fan sites ran the Record report not as unverified Portuguese speculation but as confirmation of an imminent signing. Player profiles were published. Statistical breakdowns were produced. Comparison pieces to Mateus Fernandes appeared within 24 hours. YouTube channels ran reaction videos. An AI-generated image of Sá in a West Ham kit circulated on social media and was shared thousands of times.
Mendes fed into all of this. He knew fans were thirsty for some transfer activity, and he used his relationship with Nuno to exploit the fans' desperate desire for a player of Sá’s potential.
Is it still possible?
The bottom line is that Sá may still join West Ham. The connection through Silva is real. Mendes's relationship with Nuno is real. The profile makes sense. And now that Koppen is in place, transfer talks are expected to begin in earnest next week. West Ham’s new executive structure has shown an ability to keep leaks from spreading throughout the UK and the football transfer media.
For over a decade, stories were leaked so that the club always seemed to be in the mix on potential big transfers from the previous ownership structure. Agents would then use West Ham as a “big club” to spin a narrative and raise the profile of players they wanted to move from one club to another. When all else failed, spread a rumor that a big London club was in on a client and it would go viral.
Mendes certainly pulled an old trick from his sleeve and tried to use West Ham like he had and other agents have done in the past. It didn’t work for his client. It’s clear now that the club are moving away from that reputation with all business being held close to the vest.
Add us as a preferred source on Google