Lucas Paqueta SIGNED

[Alan]

"Lucas Paqueta: Lost in Milan, reborn at Lyon – and now West Ham’s statement signing By James Horncastle From the mountains overlooking Rio de Janeiro you can, on a clear day, see a small island across the Guanabara Bay. It was here, in 1997, that the man set to become West Ham’s club-record signing, Lucas Tolentino Coelho da Lima, was born, a player better known by the name of his birthplace, the once-glamorous Ilha de Paqueta. The journey he embarked on to become a professional footballer began with his grandfather Mirao ushering him and his older brother onto a ferry to cross the water between their home and Rio de Janeiro, where Lucas Paqueta attended Flamengo’s Gavea academy and Matheus trained at Ninho, another of the club’s facilities. Paqueta has a tattoo on his forearm of a star and the letter “M” in recognition of the contribution his late grandfather made in making him who he is today; an established Brazil international upon whom clubs in Italy, France and England have lavished more than €100million (£84.8m; $100m) in transfer fees before his 25th birthday. The “Brazil premium” is still very much a thing, although just imagine what Paqueta would go for had he been born and raised on Canvey Island in Essex and called Luke Canvey. Presumably, he’d make Jack Grealish look cheap. But we digress. At Gavea, the boy off the boat impressed. Growing up on an island with no cars, Paqueta played uninterrupted for hours in the streets and on the beach. He had a rare touch and feel for the game. One of his youth coaches Ze Ricardo marvelled at Paqueta’s universal skill set. He was like every midfielder rolled into one. “He could develop into a No 5, 6, 7, 8, a No 10,” Ze Ricardo told France Football. “He was very intelligent. He knew how to position himself and was fearless.” But at 15, Paqueta was under-sized for his age. The growth spurt his peers experienced didn’t arrive and all of a sudden the star of Flamengo’s youth sector couldn’t get into the team anymore. Paqueta didn’t take it very well. He cried and was irritable. Maybe this was it? All those nights catching the last ferry, the 21-mile roundtrip with Mirao. All for what? To go back to being a tour guide on the island, a job Paqueta did for some extra pocket money in his spare time? His mother wouldn’t stand for it. She went down to the academy and kicked up a fuss. Flamengo came round to her point of view and drew up a bespoke plan for Paqueta. Targeted nutrition, a bit of power training and fitness work had the desired effect and he shot up, gaining about a foot in height. It was all worth it. Paqueta ran the show as Flamengo’s under-17s won the Copinha and when the club’s first-team coach Muricy Ramalho asked the academy chiefs if they had anyone for him, one teenager stood out. Not long after making his debut in the Rio state championship, Paqueta scored his first goal in the professional game. It was no ordinary goal either. Tricks in tight spaces and his knack for making a mark on big occasions — Paqueta scored in the 2017 Copa do Brasil and Copa Sudamericana finals — then quickly made him the darling of Flamengo fans. Among them was one of their former players, Leonardo, who was back at AC Milan as the club’s sporting director. After hanging up his boots, he had cut his teeth in recruitment working under former chief executive Adriano Galliani. As the only Brazilian in Milan’s old offices on Via Turati, the signings of Thiago Silva and Alexandre Pato were widely credited to him. One of Leonardo’s first moves upon returning to the club after leaving Paris Saint-Germain and trying his hand at coaching again with Antalyaspor was to attempt to sign the next big thing out of Brazil. A deal worth €35million was struck with Flamengo in the autumn of 2018 and Paqueta joined the following January. There were echoes of Pato’s arrival a little over a decade earlier and the nostalgia hit hard. Leonardo had accompanied Kaka to Paris to collect his Ballon d’Or in 2007 and, as he left, famously remarked he’d be back with Pato. Injuries ultimately stopped him from fulfilling his potential but the talent was obvious. Memories of the early Pato, along with the illustrious association between Brazil and the last great Milan sides, loaded tremendous expectation on Paqueta’s shoulders. The rainbow flick he performed on his Serie A debut against Genoa only added to it. Had Leonardo only gone and found the new Kaka? Fans at San Siro certainly hoped so. After all, this wasn’t 2003, when Kaka joined a Champions League-winning team and people wondered whether this preppy-looking kid from Sao Paulo would get a game amid competition from Manuel Rui Costa and Rivaldo. In 2019, Milan needed a saviour. The club hadn’t been in the Champions League for five years and would have gone to the wall had Elliott Management not repossessed it from Li Yonghong. The hope projected on Paqueta was that he might almost single-handedly make Milan elite again. Paqueta’s adaptation wasn’t easy. Whereas in the past there would have been a group of players like Dida, Serginho, Cafu, Thiago Silva, Pato and Kaka to help him settle in, by the time Paqueta arrived at Milanello there were no Brazilians left at the club. The second language at Milan these days is French, not Portuguese, and when Leonardo left six months after signing Paqueta, his protege felt isolated. Paqueta was only there a year, but the club went through three coaches. When he joined midway through the season, Rino Gattuso had already settled on his best team and couldn’t find a spot for him. Marco Giampaolo told Paqueta to be “less Brazilian and more concrete, less showy”. By the time Stefano Pioli got the job, the direction of travel was hard to reverse and the midfield player who benefited most from his appointment turned out to be Hakan Calhanoglu. Paqueta, in Pioli’s mind, needed to be “more incisive”. Internally, Milan were of the opinion they had overpaid Flamengo for what Paqueta was at the time. The €21million Lyon were prepared to pay for him in the late summer of 2020 was therefore considered something of a miracle and the 15 per cent sell-on Milan cleverly negotiated means they will get their money back and have a nice windfall ahead of the final week of the transfer window. There are no regrets, even though Lyon will make close to three times what Paqueta cost them. He has flourished in Ligue 1. “I put myself under a lot of pressure in Milan,” Paqueta reflected in L’Equipe. “Too much even. When I moved to France I told myself I didn’t have to put myself through that again. I just had to do my best. “Sometimes there isn’t a reason for failure. My time at Milan wasn’t extraordinary by any means, I probably achieved less than expected, but it served me well and made me a better player; a different, stronger player who rediscovered the essence of what he was at Flamengo. The pressure is still there but it doesn’t come from myself anymore.” In Lyon, Paqueta found another big club, just not one on the same scale as Milan. The environment was less demanding than San Siro and the league less tactically strait-jacketed than Serie A. Behind the transfer was another legend of the Brazilian game, the free-kick maestro Juninho Pernambucano, who had been enticed back to Lyon as the club’s sporting director to build a team mixing the best products of Europe’s finest academy with the technical refinement of his home nation, namely Paqueta, Bruno Guimaraes and Thiago Mendes. The team that reached the semi-finals of the 2020 Champions League under Rudi Garcia, upsetting Juventus and Manchester City along the way, evolved from an aggressive, transition-based 3-5-2 to a 4-3-3 which sought control through a neat possession game made possible thanks to the quintet of Brazilians, Houssem Aouar and Maxence Caqueret. It promised a lot and a 1-0 win away to Mauricio Pochettino’s PSG before Christmas showcased the elegant press-resistant side to Paqueta’s game as he helped Lyon relieve the pressure around their penalty area and get up the pitch. Paqueta offered glimpses of a complete midfielder, whose ability to disrupt opponents as they progressed towards Lyon’s goal married the aesthetic with the aggressive. On the ball, as his smarterscout profile below shows, he often kept his passing short and sharp, with neat interchange (link-up play volume 86 out of 99) rather than longer, searching balls upfield (progressive passing 27 out of 99). Those actions seemingly kept possession at an above-average rate compared with other central attacking midfielders (ball retention ability 59 out of 99). Off the ball, Paqueta’s ability to disrupt opponents with his high volume of defensive actions such as tackles and blocks (disrupting opposition moves 98 out of 99) was also highly effective in preventing opponents from progressing towards Lyon’s goal (defending impact 73 out of 99). Halfway through his first campaign in Ligue 1, L’Equipe named him in their team of the season so far. Once the polemic subsided about Tite prematurely handing Lucas Paqueta the Brazil No 10 shirt for a friendly against Argentina in 2019 — a decision Rivaldo took as a lack of respect for Rivelino, Zico and Ronaldinho — he established himself as a regular. His versatility means he will probably start at the World Cup. “He has the talent to be one of the top players,” Emerson Palmieri told The Athletic earlier this summer. The Euro 2020 winner spent last season on loan at Lyon and will be reunited with Paqueta after joining West Ham from Chelsea. “He’s still young and I believe we have to have patience with him because sometimes youngsters have ups and downs.” The oscillating performances Palmieri touches upon refers to the Lyonnais perception of Paqueta as an absolute joy to watch on his day. But he lacks consistency. Garcia felt he needed to show more killer instinct in his passing rather than playing simple, short and sideways. The team also went backwards in Paqueta’s time, declining from Champions League semi-finalists to no Champions League football at all in back-to-back years. Last season under Peter Bosz was the worst the club has experienced in a quarter of a century. Either the team underperformed or wasn’t as good as people thought. Guimaraes was sold to Newcastle in January to offset some of the lost earnings from missing out on the Champions League and Lyon have gone back to players they can rely on like Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso. More substance, less style. Paqueta was ready for a new challenge but the lacklustre showings he put in over the second half of the last campaign also made Lyon open to moving on. Romain Faivre can replace him between the lines and Jeff Reine Adelaide’s return from injury covers Lyon in midfield. A fee of up to €60million from West Ham is frankly too good to turn down and would make Paqueta the club’s most lucrative sale after Tanguy Ndombele. West Ham fans will be hoping they get more bang for their buck than Tottenham did for their record signing who returned to Lyon on loan last season and is now at Napoli. “His quality is there for all to see,” Palmieri said of Paqueta. “He’s a dedicated guy, someone who is obsessed with winning games and competing for titles. He has everything he needs to develop further. I think he has a brilliant future ahead of him.”"

[Manuel]

"Hes going in the right direction, but let's be honest still need a lot more. Tony Gale made a point in commentary that he needs to keep the ball sometimes and dictate play rather than keep treating it like a hot potato, which I thought was a fair criticism, but overall encouraging."

[Mad Dog]

Thought he was very good today. Clearly a class player. As I said before moyes has just utilised him very badly. No point buying a ferrari to plough a field. But don't forget come on you benrahma thinks he's crap.

[Mad Dog]

Thought he was very good today. Clearly a class player. As I said before moyes has just utilised him very badly. No point buying a ferrari to plough a field. But don't forget come on you benrahma thinks he's crap.

[nychammer]

It’s takes time sometimes and entire season for players to find their feet. Glad he’s showing finally what he can do. Some nice touches today.

[13 Brentford Rd]

Getting better by the game and looks class dictating play.

[Barty]

Some very neat touches today Hopefully he´ll be here for a while and he can help us attract more players from the Brazil national team setup while he´s here Here´s hoping

[Hammer and Pickle]

Ha ha ha Alf. He plays it on the ground like Trevor Brooking once did.

[Sir Alf]

Paqueta can’t win headers when we’re defending corners or offer aerial ability at set pieces. Hence he won’t be missed as he doesn’t possess what Moyesiah really values in a footballer. His only asset is that he is not very fast. Probably the only reason Moyes ok’d signing him.

[Side of Ham]

You have too many rapey views to be stalked….oh and the fact you’ve come looking for me you knob on here….and done the same on other threads today :-)

[Willtell]

Stalker of Spam speaks and it’s nearly always bollocks. Carry on…

[Side of Ham]

How can I be the one stalking you if you came into it after me and Russ have been having the discussion? What a stupid old man you are….this is what let’s your credibility down on here (if you’ve ever had any)…..that and your sick views on things like rape….it’s great having you on a piece of string though ready to wind up….

[Willtell]

#NAME?

[Side of Ham]

= Willwall knows our possession percentages in games and can’t argue back….so he goes all mincey and personal….

[Willtell]

No point arguing with an idiot that makes up stories about Moyes asking Paqueta to “starve himself of the ball”. Only in your putrid mind Snide of Spam.

[Side of Ham]

"It would be if said manager was asking him to play ‘football’ but he’s not he’s asking him to starve himself of the ball to keep the shape, and many of us wouldn’t try hard to not have the ball… so try again…"

[Willtell]

We both agree that Paqueta is not cheating but sick of Moyes substitutions and general defensive tactics but still tries his best. Russ was right though about cheating. If any player decides to not try because he doesn’t like tactics or managerial decisions that is cheating. End of.

[Crassus]

"Cheating implies deliberate evasion of responsibility Looking at the two, Paq' looks confused at his deploy rendering him unable to give his best - arguably Moyes is the cheater here, by deliberately sacrificing the player and others, upon the alter of his ego"

[Side of Ham]

Nope it’s not cheating it’s the manager not incentivising him to play his best football it’s why there is such a term as ‘the manager has lost the dressing room’ comes from. His tactics is the cheating part as the sport is mean’t to be entertaining…..

[Willtell]

I will add to my earlier comments that I like Paqueta and see it him confused by Moyes ridiculous tactics and substitutions rather than not trying.

[Crassus]

"Russ Thanks for the inside knowledge A blind man can see that Paq' has the hump with Moyes, I called it a few weeks ago when he was hooked and utterly blanked him as he left the pitch, to the point of avoiding eye contact even Moronic Moyes pulled him against Newcastle when he was having a good game, it visibly lifted the Newc's and pushed us back No wonder the bloke has the look of regret for joining us, the manager broke the transfer record and the self proclaimed practitioner of extensive due diligence, came out after six weeks saying he did not know where to play him I don't see a player cheating, I see an demotivated, poorly deployed and generally confused player"

[Willtell]

When a player takes a wage and decides he won’t put his heart into it because he doesn’t like the manager’s tactics that’s cheating. Not liking the tactics is an excuse that many will have sympathy for but it’s still cheating.

[Side of Ham]

"You are trying to make it cheating but what it really is, is a player not advocating the style of football a manager is dictating he plays. This means he will be unhappy playing the sport he loves and is very good at…Moyes is asking him to play the sort of football that is ‘chase ball’ he’s asking 10 outfield players to play the majority of their games as the one man in the middle of the circle….please tell us all, how coming from teams that have rarely done that is he supposed to get settled into a new country and get motivated to play those tactics….as that what ‘growing some balls’ is….One of Moyes’s big pointers when we was doing well was they were buying into his project….well now after being played into the ground by him they are clearly not and and new players will suffer…..it is no shock to find that the only new player able to thrive so far has been a centre back…."

[Russ of the BML]

"Side of Ham 2:54 Sat Feb 18 But if a player deliberately doesn't put a shift in because he doesn't like the manager then that is cheating. I'm not suggesting Paqueta has done that but you asked me what if a player doesn't want to grow a pair. And I said its cheating. Because it is. Paqueta has an issue with Moyes set up. I agree. But he still needs to toughen up and get to grips with the physicality of the PL. If, as you suggested, he doesn't want to then he is a cheat."

[Russ of the BML]

"Side of Ham 2:54 Sat Feb 18 But if a player deliberately doesn't put a shift in because he doesn't like the manager then that is cheating. I'm not suggesting Paqueta has done that but you asked me what if a player doesn't want to grow a pair. And I said its cheating. Because it is. Paqueta has an issue with Moyes set up. I agree. But he still needs to toughen up and get to grips with the physicality of the PL. If, as you suggested, he doesn't want to then he is a cheat."

[Side of Ham]

You’re calling it cheating I’m calling it not in the mindset to encourage letting the opposition have the ball most of the time….he’s Brazilian ffs their whole ethos is about trying to have the ball at their feet for as much time as possible and at the very least possession of the ball. When the football experts announce that a manager ‘has lost the dressing room’ that is Paqueta x22…..I bet you don’t pipe up that they’ve accused those 22 of cheating….what a wally you are being here….