Stumbling towards the latter stages of his professional career and with serious fitness issues, mega star Neymar has returned to his roots by heading back to Brazil, to boyhood club Santos. As reported by ESPN, Neymar’s return to the club he played for between 2009-13 is no gentle retirement tour, but rather a platform from which he can relaunch his own flagging international career and help Brazil to an elusive sixth World Cup win next year.
It doesn’t take too much imagination for West Ham fans to see the parallel here – Hammers own Brazilian midfielder Lucas Paquetá has been dogged by the FA being scandal (he denies any wrong doing) and poor form to the point where he was dropped from the Brazil International starting line up in August and suspended in October following – ironically – yellow cards accumulated.
So when reports are published in Brazil in lance.com.br of: “Paqueta’s agent reportedly met with Flamengo director of football Jose Boto and left open the possibility of him joining the Brazilian side” (6th of February), clearly there is an appetite within Paquetá’s homeland for the midfielder to return to the club for which he has made 94 appearances.
West Ham fans will hope that the change of regime at London Stadium will dampen down the talk of Paquetá – amongst many – being unsettled at London Stadium. These moves and rumours about Paq-man returning ‘home’ – to Flamengo, Botofago, are not new and were rife last autumn (C and H, November) under Lopetegui.
Unlike Neymar, Paquetá has to wait out the completion of the FA hearing and finally have the opportunity of clearing his own name, before taking any decision about where he will travel next: So ‘talk of him leaving before the month’ is out is highly dubious on two fronts. West Ham will not leave themselves critically short by selling him without bringing in another playmaker – and no club will meet David Sullivan’s transfer price expectation for Paqueta whist the possibility of a worldwide ban still hangs over his head.
But – anything after the end of this season and the completion of the FA hearing is still an unknown quantity for West Ham as much as for the player. In the meantime, the huge upturn in form he’s displayed under Graham Potter may well be the barometer for his overall mindset.
Life in Claret and Blue is much less miserable than it was for Paquetá just three short months ago, which may well be the deciding factor in the summer that keeps the Hammers number ten in London for a while longer when, hopefully for both the player and the club under Graham Potter, there are calmer waters ahead.
“Life in Claret and Blue is much less miserable than it was for Paqueta just three short months ago” do me a favour!
He is West Ham’s highest earner on £150,000 a week! Our website reported he joined for a club record fee of £51 million on a 5 year contract plus 1 year option in August 2022. That is £7.8 million a year so anyone who earns this much money can hardly be described as having a miserable life. In the 2 and a half years since he joined he has scored 16 goals and 9 assists in 94 games, with only 4 goals this season. Yes there have been glimpses of his undoubted talent, but if this story is true should his agent be negotiating a future move while he is still contracted to West Ham?
Write some more boring crap
Sorry I don’t agree with the verdict that he is worth keeping in my opinion he gives the ball away too often in dangerous areas then his concentration levels are not up to the standard for a premiership player that is considered world class i would let him go and rebuild
Paqueta has been playing really well under potter yet you want him out, perhaps you’d prefer to watch ward prowse and soucek trudge around in the middle of the park for the rest of the season! An interesting idea I suppose