By Louis Nixon

As time has passed, it’s become apparent that West Ham United will likely sell Lucas Paqueta this transfer window, but will the money be reinvested? 

It’s been a window of many surprises so far with the addition of Taty Castellenos as well as Pablo to the side, but we’ve also seen three players make a move away this transfer window, which very quickly, could turn into four as the rumour of Paqueta wanting to return back to Brazil is becoming further apparent by the minute and the Hammers might have to take the cash and run. 

Why run? Because the squad needs great improvement, there’s a handful of signings that need to be made in order to help Nuno, but time is running out and they’ll have to get a serious move on within the next two weeks. 

Despite them being big assumptions, in the event that the Hammers do sell Paqueta, where should the money be spent? Well, one of the first players through the door should be Adama Traore, who reinforced the squad and bench whilst also providing further attacking reassurance. 

Furthermore, we should be after one or two defenders, there’s been rumours across the past couple of weeks that we might’ve been looking for a wingback, but that seems no longer and signing a central defender is key at this moment in time to which the likes of signing Eric Dier as well as someone else could provide leadership and also more bodies to replace the dreadful players that we have. 

Finally, depending on what the club have up its sleeve, we should also focus on signing a number 10 to replace Paqueta. If the club are anticipating playing Taty Castellenos there, we would be fools!

The Argentinian quite literally left Lazio because they played him in that role, which he doesn’t like, and after he put pen to paper for a five-year contract, it would be ludicrous and unfair to play him there, meaning we’ll need a like-for-like replacement to ensure that Nuno doesn’t fall down another rabbit hole.  

Whether Paqueta is sold or not, Nuno should be backed this window with the reinforcements that he wants and in the case that the Brazilian does leave, there’s now no excuse at all for the owners to not back Nuno even further than initially expected… time will tell.