Manchester City and West Ham had been close to doing business before Lucas Paquetá’s FA Inquiry was announced and, we were told, the whole £80 million deal between the two clubs collapsed. The Brazilian’s career has been on hold for two years and still, at the end of June, the outcome has not been made public.
The player would, I’m sure, leap at a chance to join Manchester City if exonerated – albeit two years late and for a much reduced fee. West Ham have pretty much resigned themselves to Paquetá looking to relaunch his career be it in Manchester, Brazil or as reported yesterday possibly in Saudia Arabia.
The news that Manchester City’s own talented youngster James McAtee- confirmed Hammers target and triumphant England u21 captain – is now the subject of ‘talks’ with Fiorentina makes the whole saga -if it were possible – even more infuriating as there would certainly be a deal to be done involving Paquetá and McAtee if the Brazilian were freed from the dreadful threat of a ban.
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Tuttomercatoweb.com confirmed yesterday that the Italian side are positioning themselves for a bid to take the midfielder away from the Premier League for €20 million or even less. Peanuts for a player of his quality.
West Ham would surely love to negotiate for McAtee using Paquetá as their ‘Ace’ or perhaps the other way around – negotiate for Paquetá using McAtee as the makeweight.
Until the FA publish their deliberations – and hopefully free Lucas Paquetá from the two year nightmare- the Irons are pretty powerless to play their trump card, with over twenty sides apparently keen on McAtee the Irons could elbow themselves to the front of the queue. The lure of a Paquetá sale is still appealing to Guardiola who needs to refashion his own midfield.
In the current woeful state of FA -induced ‘Paqueta limbo’, the alternative is for Graham Potter to shake some funding from the magic money tree in the West Ham boardroom and do a deal with Manchester City in the usual way. Cold hard cash.
Attracting the player to the ‘Potter project’ may be more taxing. McAtee is young, English, talented, ambitious – and certainly worth the hassle. £20 million? An absolute bargain.
Lucas Paquetá denies all of the allegations made against him.