West Ham midfielder Lucas Paquetá is highly likely to join Manchester City this summer — if he is acquitted of the FA’s betting charges.
As Claret & Hugh first reported back in February, the Brazilian’s move to Pep Guardiola’s side is very much back on, with growing confidence that he will be cleared of any wrongdoing. Should that happen, a move to Manchester City — originally planned for 2023 — is expected to go ahead.
West Ham were on the verge of selling Paquetá last summer, with City close to activating his £80m release clause. However, the deal collapsed after the FA announced it was launching an investigation into betting irregularities involving the player.
When Claret & Hugh asked a top transfer insider if City still planned to reignite their interest, the response was telling: “It never went away.”
The source added: “West Ham won’t get £80m for the player now, but he’ll still go for a decent fee.”
A former Manchester City player, who asked not to be named, told Claret & Hugh: “Man City are serious. There has been an offer on the table for some time. Let’s see what happens with the hearing, but he could be at the Etihad next season.”
Something is very wrong if we have to suffer financially from all this bull. Someone should pay the deficit if there is one. We let players go cheap paqueta and kudas and next season their value rockets after a stunning season, we will be pretty miffed.
I strongly believe that Paqueta will be found not guilty of these charges and basically West Ham have suffered as well as him over the last two years.
I don’t believe that there willl be any loyalty shown by him in remaining at West Ham and really think that a mass exodus of players are exoected from the club and I would grab as much as possible for this one player.
More worrying is other quality players that will follow aa in Bowen or Kudas !
Already Potter has a huge job in rebuilding a side of ‘misfits’ that was assembled by the former manager, Tim and the Board.
I personally do not consider that any summer signings will see any success for the 25/26 season and we will have to be very patient ! , unfortunately the Football World doesn’t work this way !, so watch this space !!!!!!!!
A former City player with West Ham connections? Has to be Kalvin Phillips or Joe Hart. More likely Joe given his pundit work.
You’d think he’d have some commitment to the club after standing by him
City will not sign him as he still under FA investigation and if he is found not guilty City will not give anywhere near £80m as he just aint worth that much max would be £50. He’s not a game changer but he looks decent in a very mediocre team.
Man City have had an awful season by their standards and must get their top picks . Westham hold all the cards here and can say no to any bid lower than the release clause . Paqueta’s looking good on the pitch again and so Westham should happily keep him if no club comes in with the release clause bid . He just needs to be acquitted sooner rather than later .
Let him go , he can a brilliant player on his day but normally he just gives the ball away to often and to easily and forever picking up yellow cards .
Totally agree!! Release clause £80,000000! That’s what we want!! Otherwise why is it there?
Anything is worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it and not a penny more. City will not pay anything like £80m which is a figure that gets a game changer that ticks all the boxes, young, ambitious, technically superb, reliable and with integrity.
City can afford to be fussy, they have already started their rebuild with the excellent Maroush £60m, Khusinov £33m, Gonzales £60m and will have Rodri and Bobb back from long term injury. if the board want to cash in on LP realistically £40-50m would be a very good return. More likely is that City lost interest some time ago.
Errrr why can’t we get 80 million or over ..how can they dictate the price .?.are we this soft ..or have I read that wrong?? WE price the player and if he has a release clause why on earth would you let him go for less than it …??? …why sell unless he reslly pushes for it …well never be anything without finding a way to keep players like paq
Players like paq will play for the team that pays the most. We need players that want to play for West Ham. Maybe Man City won’t want to pay £80 million. Maybe someone in Saudi Arabia will want to pay more. Up to us whatever the scenario. After what Lucas has already done for us, it would be churlish to keep him against his desires.
Agreed, we need home grown who are passionate but even they nowadays are just kids who play for money instead of pride in the team, football has lost so much thst it will never get back.
The problem with the release clause is us two years of his playing time have been lost.
How he hasn’t served any sort of ban . And he’s only 28 this summer. And has another 4 or 5 years at the top level . Problem the club has is Sullivan is utterly potless and is putting his ego ahead of the good of the club .