The breaking news at West Ham at the moment is Lucas Paquetá asked not to play vs QPR yesterday, as he looks to get a move back to Flamengo.

Lucas Paquetá’s time at West Ham has been underwhelming to say the least, but it hasn’t been short of headlines.

From trophy winning assists, to £85m bids, to betting scandals, to constant rumours about him leaving. He’s a very talented player, a player that does seem to care about the club, but he’s also a player I think the club need to move on.

The now 28-year-old came through the ranks at Flamengo scoring 18 goals and providing 8 assists in 95 matches for tha Brazilian giants. But after over 300 appearances in Europe for the Hammers, AC Milan and Lyon. Lucas is interested in a return to his boyhood club, and they are interested in bringing him back.

According to Jacob Steinberg of the Telegraph, Lucas Paqueta asked not to play against QPR and wants to join Flamengo, who are willing to pay €40m.

The Hammers are said to be reluctant to sanction a January sale, and Nuno wants to keep him because he’s one of his favourite players at the club.

However, I think we should sell him if it is for a fee of around £35m and we have a replacement.

Obviously it doesn’t seem like we’re preparing for the Championship with the money we’ve spent so far this month. But if we were to go down we couldn’t command a fee of anywhere close to that for Paquetá, and he’s not exactly going to be the player to drag us out of this situation, so why not sell.

He clearly doesn’t want to be here, there have been rumours of him wanting to leave almost every transfer window since he arrived. And in the situation we’re in we need everyone to be committed and to give 100% I don’t think Lucas Paquetá will do that.

Sell him, bring someone in that wants to be here, bring in a chance creator, because Paquetá isn’t that. Even if it’s just someone on loan for the rest of the season, or if we can get someone like Harvey Elliott.

Even if Jesse Lingard on a free is his replacement, I seriously think we should be selling him to Flamengo for that price this month.