Nuno Spipirito Santo during West Ham’s loss to Arsenal (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
West Ham United manager Nuno Espirito Santo is reportedly looking to sign midfield key Lucas Paqueta for around £60 million.
According to The Guardian and other newspapers, the Brazil international has spent various periods at the London Stadium, at times looking like a world-beater and at one point attracting interest from Manchester City.
However, Paqueta has also been very unstable and his form has gone downhill a bit recently, but the Daily Mail reports that the club would be happy to keep him, having recently attracted interest from Aston Villa in the transfer window.
But now there is fresh speculation about Paqueta’s situation, with new manager Nuno apparently prepared to let the 28-year-old go for a fee of £60m.
This is according to West Ham’s reliable outlet Hammers News, but it remains to be seen whether anyone will replace him.
Transfer expert talks about Lucas Paqueta’s future at West Ham
Journalist Graham Bailey discussed the story on Hammers News, explaining that while West Ham want to keep Paqueta, there is a price to pay for every player.
“West Ham have a problem in terms of having to finance acquisitions, which inevitably means the biggest names are tied up with the most salable assets,” Bailey explained.
“Paqueta is not going to leave and West Ham are not going to sell him. But if someone takes him for this asking price (about £60m) then yes, he could move.”
It will be interesting to see how this story develops as January approaches, but it may be hard to imagine anyone being particularly keen to pay that much for Paqueta at this point.
The former Lyon man is getting better every day, but he is not getting any younger and it will be a bit of a gamble after his checkered time in east London.