Lucas Paqueta ‘Destined’ to quit West Ham United for Manchester City after Kevin De Bruyne injury, new £80m+ bid expected
Lucas Paqueta looks “destined” to quit West Ham and join Manchester City this month, with the treble winners set to make a bid worth at least £80m report The Guardian.
Writing on their official website (16 August), the newspaper reports that City are preparing a new bid worth at least £80m for the Brazilian after Kevin De Bruyne suffered a hamstring injury in the opening Premier League game of the season that will see him ruled out for months.
And with Paqueta wanting the move to Manchester, the attacking midfielder now looks “destined” to get his move.
“One player who seems destined to join City’s ambitious treble defence is Lucas Paquetá of West Ham,” they wrote.
“The champions of everything are due to increase their offer for the Brazilian to at least £80m, especially now that Belgian playmaker Kevin de Bruyne has been ruled out for several months with a hamstring injury.”
Think about it
Obviously there would have been no plans to let Paqueta leave this summer when we knew that Declan Rice would be off and that Gianluca Scamacca wanted out too.
But considering the player has a release clause that kicks in for a similar amount next summer, and he’s made it quite clear that he’d rather leave if the opportunity presents itself, we could be quite smart here.
There are plenty of positions where we need to strengthen and the added money could really help us bring in some great quality, but we can also squeeze a few extra pennies out of City because of the De Bruyne situation.
Prior to the weekend it just seemed like they wanted depth, but with the Belgian now out potentially until 2024 they are desperate to bring in cover and get the numbers in their squad up.
That could see us push them higher to get money in, and Paqueta played well on Saturday against Bournemouth despite the noise which suggests he won’t down tools if it doesn’t happen. Win-win for the Hammers.
In other West Ham news, ExWHUemployee has dropped a fresh take on the Harry Maguire saga after a deal “collapsed”.