Exclusive By Hughie Southon
West Ham and Lyon are tonight (Wed) attempting to agree a fee which would see Lucas Paqueta become a member of the Hammers squad.
We understand from a key London Stadium source that the French Ligue 1 outfit are looking for €50 million plus €10 million add ons and that thus far the Irons have offered around €40 million.
Talks are now serious and it seems more than possible that a compromise may well be arrived at for a player who has three years left on his current deal but for whom Lyon have been ready to entertain offers since the window opened.
Our Hammers source hopes that the two clubs can thrash out an agreement over the days remaining in this window which, if it were to happen, would have seen eight players added to the squad.
Should – or hopefully ONCE – the clubs have agreed a fee the player’s personal terms can be sorted out quickly – to complete what would appear to be a successful summer spending spree.
I would rather we spent more on Paqueta and forget vaneken . I hope we do this , what a statement of intent this would be. COYI ⚒
Really hope this is true & we can get it done & over the line………reservations !!!! Penny pinching Hammers could scupper the deal & let another club in who aren’t bothered about paying the extra million or so that it would cost to get it over the line……
Hugh, would you say that 25% chance has increased from tonight?
Given we are around £10 million from what they want apparently I’d say probably, given this was our first offer. Everything can change but certainly there seems to be hope mate
I think Paqueta and a prem level defensive midfielder would make it a successful window. If Rice and Soucek go down we’re going with… Downes and Lanzini? Kherer? Hope and a prayer? But no doubt Paqueta makes us a more dangerous team.
At least this window’s transfer business will respond fully to the accusation that the Board will not invest sufficiently in the team and that somehow David Moyes dithers.
I agree entirely, Budgie. I have no idea where this dithering tag has come from – a few random ‘ITKs’ whose comments have been taken well out of proportion to create good cannon fodder and headlines no doubt. It’s the way our society works these days.
We cannot buy players if their clubs aren’t ready to sell. We cannot buy players if the player doesn’t want to come. I suspect it’s more about their dithering than ours…
Our board have acted responsibly, within the means of our football club. I would hope Sean would agree that, since they took over, they’ve done their feduciary duty and led us through recovery, improvement and the pandemic. I have nothing but respect for them, especially given the crap some of our fans have thrown at them with very little in the way of evidence.
Football is a business based on humans. Best we remember how fragile and unpredictable we all are…
Very eloquently put, Mr. Lurve
Moyes detractors will always jump on a word like dithering and if they repeat it often enough people will start to believe it. Personally I think Moyes likes value for money as does Sullivan and they are hard bargainers. If there’s any dithering going on it’s probably at the point it becomes silly money for the player, the personal fees, the agent fees etc.
No-one can expect only positive criticism.
If we get Paqueta will we have a bigger squad than last season or about the same?
Will DM play the better younger players more than 21/22 ?
Austrick – I don’t think anyone is suggesting that. Criticism only works though when it’s informed, balanced and constructive. Not when it’s vile, lazy or unfounded…
In answer to your question, we’ve shipped out:
Vlasic, Diop, Masuaku, Yarmolenko & Fredericks, with Noble retiring and Kral going home. That’s 7 first team players, none of whom (other than Noble) covered themselves in glory…
We’ve brought in:
Emerson, Kehrer, Cornet, Scamacca, Downes and Aguerd, with Areola signing permanently. That’s 6 new first team players, all of whom (I suggest) are upgrades on what we’ve lost…
Add the emergence of Coventry and Ashby and I think we’re about the same in terms of depth, which is why I expect we’ll see another 2 signings in the coming days.