West Ham United make improved £48million bid to Lyon for Lucas Paqueta
West Ham have quickly responded to their opening offer for Lucas Paqueta being rejected by tabling an improved bid, according to L’Equipe.
Lyon reportedly want €60million for the Brazilian international and the Hammers are now very close to that number with their latest attempt totalling €57million [£48million], with €42million up front and a further €15million in “fairly easily attainable” bonuses.
Manager David Moyes confirmed on Wednesday (24 August) that the club had bid for the 24-year-old, and they are clearly serious about landing him.
The window has less than a week to run so they are moving fast on this potential deal, with an opening bid of €40million submitted on Wednesday that was quickly turned down, and according to L’Equipe the improved offer was delivered on Thursday morning.
The player’s agents have been in London for days now as they look to complete a move for him to the Premier League, although West Ham are not the only club interested.
The latest report says that the player has not yet been in contact with the Irons himself so agreement with the attacking midfielder will still need to be reached as time ticks down.
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It might be a product of the highly deflating start to the Premier League season but after an active summer that has already seen the likes of Gianluca Scamacca and Nayef Aguerd arrive for big money this could be the biggest of them all.
The likes of Newcastle and Arsenal have been linked to the former AC Milan man but the Hammers have jumped in with the first official bid [Express].
That shows how seriously they are taking this as they obviously don’t want to be left with another fruitless chase for a headline transfer.
If they are as close to the asking price as suggested it would seem like there is a fair chance agreement can be reached with the club at least, if they accept the structure of the deal.
Fans will not be ready to get ahead of themselves yet though after how things broke down with Amadou Onana on personal terms.
But given the fact that the club are ready to throw a huge amount of money at the transfer in order to spark their attacking output into life they are sure to be prepared to offer big wages too.
If it is successful it will lift the fanbase greatly, but there may be some slight concerns that it is an expensive panic buy if he didn’t hit the ground running and ended up being the next Sebastien Haller or Filipe Anderson.