West Ham United: Lucas Paqueta will be at Rush Green today, announcement soon
West Ham United are hoping they can announce the signing of Lucas Paqueta today (Monday 29 August), according to ExWHUEmployee.
The 24-year-old is set to complete a £50.7million move to the London Stadium from Lyon in Ligue 1 and he has already completed his medical ahead of the documents being signed.
The Brazilian international is at Rush Green now to finalise everything and West Ham hope that they can get everything sorted to announce him today and have him available to play against Tottenham Hotspur in midweek.
When asked on Twitter what the situation is with Paqueta, ExWHUEmployee said: “He will be at the training ground today to hopefully finalise everything and be announced either today or tomorrow.”
He then quickly added further flesh to the bone in another tweet, saying: “The club expect it to be announced today,” which would be the eighth summer signing for the Irons.
Spurs beware
It is perhaps harsh on Pablo Fornals, who scored the Hammers’ first Premier League goal of the season in the 1-0 win away at Aston Villa, for Paqueta to come in and take his place but football is cruel.
David Moyes’ side were helped by the very poor Villa side that Steven Gerrard can’t seem to fix at the moment and Fornals is not going to impact the game anywhere near as much against Antonio Conte’s well-drilled Spurs side.
They have just gone to Nottingham Forest and won 2-0 while the Irons were beaten by Steve Cooper’s Reds two weeks prior and the gulf in class so far this season has been evident.
If West Ham can find a way to take a point off their London rivals then they can consider it a success but they will only have a good chance if Paqueta is thrown straight into the side and Fornals is axed.