Charlie Austin responds to “outrageous slur” from West Ham co-owner

Premier League clubs may be battling it out for Charlie Austin's signature, but one place he definitely won't be going is West Ham.

The 26-year-old took to Twitter to defend himself from what he called "an outrageous slur on my professionalism" after West Ham chairman David Sullivan raised questions about the striker's fitness. https://twitter.com/chazaustin9/status/634398599867187201 Austin was referring to comments made by Sullivan in an interview on the 'Knees Up Mother Brown' website, where he explained why West Ham would not be signing the Englishman. "They say he has no ligaments in his knee, who knows? To sign a £15m player is a big risk. He could go on for years, but knowing our luck his knee will go in his first game and that's the end of it," said Sullivan. "If we had £100m to spend we may say 'we'll spend £15m and gamble one-sixth of our budget'. But it's not one-sixth of our budget, it'd smash our budget to bits. "And he didn't keep Queens Park Rangers up. If he'd kept them up single-handedly you might say it was different - and a few of those goals were penalties." While it's somewhat refreshing to see a club owner speak so candidly about the running of the club, you have to say that this was out of line. It's no wonder Austin is annoyed.