Lucas Paqueta completes West Ham United medical, hope for Monday announcement – Fabrizio Romano
Lucas Paqueta has completed his West Ham medical today and the club are hopeful of announcing a deal on Monday, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Hammers agreed a club record fee worth a total of £50.8m (€60m) [talkSPORT, 26 August] with Olympique Lyonnais for the Brazilian playmaker, who has agreed a five-year-deal to move to east London.
The player flew into the UK on Saturday night and has now completed his medical, with just the final checks being done by lawyers on the contracts before putting pen to paper and getting the deal 100% signed off.
Huge
It’s crazy to think that at the start of the summer the club were linked with moves for Jesse Lingard on a free transfer and James Ward-Prowse for midfield, and we’ve somehow ended up with Paqueta.
A brilliantly skilled individual player with caps for the Brazilian national team and likely to be part of their World Cup squad, he’s certainly got the pedigree to be our club record signing.
He’s tenacious and determined player who brings real quality to a squad that has struggled in front of goal this season, scoring just once against Aston Villa in the first four games of the Premier League campaign.
It’s a real statement signing for West Ham too considering there was reported interest from the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and other European clubs too, and Moyes has shown that he means business.
Now the Hammers must start performing to a high level again to justify the spend and get themselves back in the reckoning for European football.