By Louis Nixon

In recent days, yet another speculation has rumoured regarding Lucas Paqueta and his future at West Ham, with Flamengo seemingly closing in on a deal, but yesterday, an unexpected twist occurred. 

Last night, it was announced that the Hammers would be content with selling Lucas Paqueta, but only in the case that he was loaned back to the Hammers for a season. Expectantly, it means that we’d likely cover his wages for the remainder of the season, and it’s probably one of the many topics of discussion that may have been spoken about in the meeting Nuno had with Paqueta. 

This is an argument that can be seen in both ways, in fairness to Nuno, he believes that Paqueta is a star assest in this team and firmly knows that in his eyes, he’s a key factor into attempting to keep West Ham in the Premier League.

But if we look on the other hand, Lucas Paqueta has had a torrid time in England, it’s been nothing short of complex and miserable, he had his dream move colapse and all in all, what’s compelling him to stay in England! Of course, he’d aspire to go home. 

The last thing that West Ham needs at the moment is an issue that spirals into being toxic. This situation needs to be handled correctly, and if he is sold,  we need to ensure the deal can be concluded quickly to allow the Hammers to reinvest the funding into a winger, defenders and perhaps another number 10 to replace Paqueta himself. 

I do believes that if we could secure the deal that is rumoured, with selling him this window but he’s loaned back to us for the remainder of the season, that would be ideal, it would mean we could have extra funding to bolster the squad, whilst also keeping Paqueta which would make Nuno happy and allow him to plan clearly what he would want. However, we do have to remember that Paqueta does want to return to Brazil, and his desire might force our hand. 

All in all, a tough situation for the club at the moment, given the relegation fight we are in, but at this moment in time, I would seriously begin to plan who to bring in, whether we do have Paqueta for the remainder of the season, or if we don’t.