• Striker hit out at West Ham co-owner over criticisms of team
• The club claim Portuguese winger ‘misunderstood the facts’

Luís Boa Morte has held clear-the-air talks with the West Ham United co-owner, David Sullivan, and apologised for comments he made after the 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

The out-of-contract Portugal international aimed a verbal attack at Sullivan, who has been critical of the West Ham squad at times during the season.

Boa Morte told Match of the Day: “Mr Sullivan should have a bit more composure when he talks and when he goes to the press to hammer the players. He should be a bit more steady. The fact you have the money, it doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”

However, the 32-year-old phoned Sullivan today to apologise for his outburst and the conversation, according to West Ham, was “cordial”. The club also reported that Boa Morte accepted his comments had been based on a “misunderstanding of the facts” and in a moment of high emotion.

Boa Morte had scored on his comeback to the West Ham side after a year spent recovering from knee ligament damage. Sullivan insisted the matter is now closed.

“I greatly admire Luís as a player and he takes the passion he shows on the pitch into his personal life,” said Sullivan. “Like me, occasionally it boils over – so I know exactly where he is coming from.”

Sullivan has not been shy in criticising the West Ham players since he and David Gold bought the club in January and injected £20m that saved the Hammers from administration.

In March, Sullivan wrote an open letter to supporters after West Ham’s defeat to Wolves, blasting the performance as “pathetic” and “shambolic”, which did not go down well with the manager, Gianfranco Zola, or the players.

In yesterday’s match programme, Sullivan wrote that “the current team and management know that what they have delivered was below the expectations at the start of the season”.

Zola’s relationship with Sullivan and Gold has been frosty and it recently emerged the owners had been conducting transfer business behind the manager’s back.

The Italian is contracted at West Ham until 2013 but he will meet Gold and Sullivan tomorrow to discuss his future at the club.

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• ‘Otherwise I just don’t see an end to it’, says co-chairman
• Club had offered Ruud van Nistelrooy £100,000 a week

West Ham United’s co-owner David Sullivan has reignited the debate over a salary cap in the Premier League, saying it may be the only solution to the “madness” of current top-flight wages.

Sullivan, who along with David Gold bought 50% of West Ham last month for £52.5m, said the salaries were “bad for football” and hit out at the imbalance created by the spending power of the ­billionaire owners of Manchester City and Chelsea.

“Maybe the ultimate solution would be a salary cap,” said Sullivan. “I’ve always been against it but I’m starting to swing towards it, as they have in American football. Other than that I just don’t see an end to it – of wages out of all proportion to the turnover of the clubs. Somehow there should be some sort of control.”

Sullivan’s comments are certain to raise an eyebrow following the Hammer’s audacious bid to secure the services of the ­Holland and Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy for £100,000 a week last month. After that attempt failed, West Ham were able to land the Egyptian striker Mido on loan from Middlesbrough with a wage deal of just £1,000 a week. “Mido … doesn’t need the money but he wants to prove something in England, so he is willing to play for £1,000 a week,” Sullivan said earlier this week.

The West Ham co-chairman said he only invested in the club because he was a supporter, describing its financial situation as a “serious mess” which be blamed on “the crazy wages the Icelandics [the previous owners] were paying”.

Sullivan, speaking to the BBC News Hardtalk programme, said players were looking to maximise income in their relatively short careers. “Players are driven by their agents – some are very nice people, some are greedy,” he said.

“There’s no loyalty to the local club or the club they play for. Most of them will just move, particularly foreign players, for more money. You’ve got to take the players off the pedestal and realise they are employees. They’re doing a job every supporter would like to be doing and they have to give something back to the badge.”

Sullivan also reiterated his fear that a ­Premier League club could go into administration this season. “It’s possible that a club, where their football debts exceed the value of the club, would cease to exist,” he said.

“There are many other clubs who have very, very heavily borrowed against future television income. It gives them a one-off lift but then you have to keep borrowing and borrowing in the future. And if you’re relegated it’s a disaster because your television money is halved. Everyone is terrified of being relegated and the parachute payment probably isn’t big enough. As a result they spend every penny they’ve got on players to keep them in the division.”

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