da betobet： West Ham United have rejected a "verbal proposal" for star player Lucas Paqueta from Manchester City, and despite the player's desire to leave, they "still hope to keep" him at the London Stadium, per transfers expert Fabrizio Romano.
Is Lucas Paqueta leaving West Ham United?
da blaze casino： It hasn't been a good transfer window for the Hammers this summer.
It all kicked off with them selling their talismanic club captain Declan Rice to cross-city rivals Arsenal, which was made a little bit easier with the £105m they made off the sale – a new record fee for a British player.
That said, the fee will only appease the fans if the club use it to reinvest, and until the last few days, the club were massively struggling to do so, seeing offers for James Ward-Prowse, Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire being rejected one after another.
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However, in some good news it looks like David Moyes might have finally landed the signature of Maguire, with Sky Sports reporting that a 'deal in principle' has been agreed after the east Londoners upped their offer to £30m.
That good news has been incredibly short-lived, however, as The Athletic have reported that league champions are now 'exploring' a deal for perhaps the club's most exciting player, Paqueta.
Worse still, the treble-winners have reportedly made a "verbal proposal" to the Conference League champions, with the player himself interested in making the move, per transfers expert Fabrizio Romano.
He explained the situation on his YouTube channel, saying:
"I can confirm about a verbal proposal from Manchester City to West Ham for Lucas Paqueta. A proposal worth £70m for West Ham is not enough to make the deal happen, but Man City are very serious on Lucas Paqueta because the player changed his agency recently.
"A few weeks ago, he joined Roc Nation Sports Brazil with a clear intention to make a top club move, so Paqueta would be really keen on joining the club, but now the story depends on the clubs, because Man City, with £70m approached West Ham. West Ham want way more than this to make the deal happen, but sources believe that West Ham could also ask for some players as part of the negotiation.
"So City and West Ham remain in contact. It's not an easy one because West Ham still hope to keep Lucas Paqueta, still convinced that Paqueta can stay at the club, but including a player in the deal could be one of the solutions.
"The discussion is going [to] be ongoing in the next days, so Lucas Paqueta [is the] next target for Man City. Why? Because Pep Guardiola has always been a big fan of the player since he was at Flamengo, Milan, Lyon, [he's] always been following the player and now believing that Paqueta could be a good opportunity, the release clause in the contract of Lucas Paqueta is £85m [and] is only valid in summer 2024 so not valid now but could be used as indication to make the deal happen this summer so conversations ongoing between City and West Ham."
How old is Lucas Paqueta?
Born August 27 1997, in Rio de Janeiro, the former Lyon star is 25-years-old with plenty of experience from his time in Brazil and Europe, helping him to be the brilliant player he is today.
Losing the 5 foot 11 dynamo would be a terrible way for the Hammers to close out their summer window, as he has been one of the very few bright spots for the club over the last year following his £51m arrival from Lyon.
In his 27 Premier League starts last year, he scored four goals, provided three assists, maintained a passing accuracy of 80.2%, won four Man-of-the-Match awards and averaged a match rating of 6.97, per WhoScored.
However, it's his underlying numbers that truly shine and help show how he has been so effective for the east Londoners outside of direct goal contributions.
According to FBref, which compares players in a similar position across Europe's top five leagues, the £150,000-a-week man sits in the top 1% for tackles and blocks, the top 4% for clearances, the top 6% for progressive passes, the top 7% for aerial duals won, and the top 15% attempted passes, all per 90.
He left a real impression on his former teammate Rice who couldn't help but wax lyrical about the ability of the Brazilian to the Evening Standard, saying:
"He's incredible, honestly, he's absolutely incredible. It's obviously taken him a while to settle into the Premier League and into the training ground, moving his family over.
"I think now you're seeing the real Lucas. Some of the stuff he does, even in training, it's just mind-boggling how good he is."
With just over three weeks remaining over the transfer window and the difficulty the Irons have had making any signings so far, they should be doing all they can to prevent Pep Guardiola landing his man.