West Ham United should do all they can to keep Lucas Paqueta this summer if he is found innocent by the FA. 

Lucas Paqueta has probably been the most talked about player at the club recently because of his spot fixing investigation. Almost a year on since being charged, Paqueta is still yet to find out the verdict.

According to quite a few sources, he is expected to found innocent due to the lack of evidence. If this is true and he isn’t found guilty, we should do all we can to keep him at the club for a a couple of reasons.

The first being is that I believe he can have a crucial role under Graham Potter this term. The Brazil International’s leadership and versatility would make him a crucial part of the former Brighton managers project.

Despite what he was going through, we saw glimpses of how good Paqueta can be under Potter, especially in the first few weeks of him being st the club. And with the burden of a potential lifetime ban from football behind him he could really step up and become the player we thought he was going to be when we signed him from Lyon.

Potter is expected to play a back five most of the time next season, this would mean he could play as one of the two midfielders, on the left of a front three or as an attacking midfielder behind two strikers, this would provide Potter with a lot of options in attack and would be a huge miss if we were to sell him.

Another reason to keep him is because of his decreased transfer value. The 27-year-old was close to being sold to Manchester City two years ago when the betting allegations came about. If we were to sell him today, I struggle to see us being able to get more than £20m, unless a Saudi offer comes in.

The only world I would sell Lucas Paqueta would be if we get an offer of £50m or more, which would mean we could replace him directly with Harvey Elliott, who is just as versatile, younger and a player Graham Potter clearly wants at the club.