Lucas Paqueta should be ashamed as fresh details emerge on West Ham exit
West Ham appear resigned to losing Lucas Paqueta.
Flamengo and West Ham are close to agreeing a deal for Paqueta, as the 28-year-old has made no secret about wanting to return to Brazil this month.
Despite that, and with Paqueta not in the squad, West Ham don’t look resigned to their Premier League fate, as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side ran out 2-1 winners over Tottenham in a shock London derby win on Saturday.
The Hammers entered the game having not win in the league since 8 November last year, and with any hope of survival all but gone.
But after being pegged back by Spurs in the second half after Crysencio Summerville had given the Hammers an early lead, a controversial added time Callum Wilson goal sent the away end crazy, and put three precious points on the board.
Paqueta should hang his head in shame as Flamengo details emerge
West Ham already appear to have moved on from Paqueta, as Mateo Kovacic has been linked with a move to the London Stadium.
It’s a disappointing end to what had otherwise been an excellent West Ham career for Paqueta, and in fairness to him, he has still been playing pretty well this season despite the poor performances and his personal transfer desires.
However, in a revealing update from Brazil-based journalist Pablo Rua via X, Paqueta has been orchestrating his move to Flamengo behind the scenes for quite some time.
Rua states that Flamengo manager Filipe Luis has played a major role in the negotiations, and since December last year, has been in almost daily contact with Paqueta over the phone.
It’s reported that in one of these many conversations, Paqueta asked Flamengo to ramp up the talks in order to get a deal done, and that he gave the Brazilian side assurances he would keep pushing for the move.
It’s also said that Felipe continued to pressure Flamengo chiefs to return with a higher bid after their initial approach was rejected, and concludes by suggesting that if the deal does go through, then Paqueta and Felipe will have been fundamental to it.
Paqueta owed West Ham considerable amount more respect than that
West Ham have done an awful lot for Paqueta, both in his career and from a financial investment in him too.
After leaving Brazil to sign for AC Milan in January 2019, in a year-and-a-half he was moved on from by the Italian giants having scored once in 44 games for them, signing for Lyon in the summer of 2020.
He performed better in France and earned his move to West Ham off the back of that, but even so, he still had a way to go to cement his reputation as a top player.
However, West Ham gave him the Premier League platform to do just that, and to his credit, he did so, becoming the Hammers’ talisman and a much-loved player by the supporters to as a result.
Therefore, seeing that he’s seemingly gone behind the club’s and supporters’ back to orchestrate his exit in the shadows will be incredibly hurtful to those same Hammers fans who’ve shown him so much affection over the years.
For that reason, he should be very disappointed with how he’s gone about getting this move to Flamengo.
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