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.”"

[Far Cough]

"The Paq man was on fire today, deffo MoM for me."

[Far Cough]

"The Paq man was on fire today, deffo MoM for me."

[Vexed]

Magnificent today this lad. Was everywhere mugging Leeds off at every opportunity. If he plays like that in the final Fiorentina gonna have a long night.

[Mad Dog]

Wonder if COYI is willing to admit he was wrong yet?

[VickyPkVillageIdiot]

"Just a shame he didn’t smash in the 4th, rather than trying to set up Rice."

[scott_d]

"Replying... Logged in as scott_d Football Forum Ticket Forum Off-Topic The title of your post: Your message: Alwaysaniron wrote... Re: Lucas Paqueta SIGNED Russ of the BML I love your optimism but there's no chance those 2 will come to us. Maddison wants CL football and Tielemans too most likely. Win on the 7th and there might be a slim chance Dec signs a new contract --- More chances of signing Tielmens and Maddison than Dec signing a new contract. This year WAS the year that he gave us, we won't get another out of him."

[Romfordboy]

"Romfordboy 11:13 Tue May 9 Re: Lucas Paqueta SIGNED When we collect the rice money we should build a team around him. Obv that would be too sensible Adding to this thought, do Scamacca and paqueta work together? Maybe that was also a problem in the first half of the season…"

[Norflundon]

Probably his best game today hopefully todays Paqueta will turn up on the 7th

[nychammer]

Sometimes it takes a season. Fans expect an instant hit. The PL can be a hard place to adapt to.

[fraser]

*dud

[fraser]

"A dus, a fucking overrated show pony a waste of money :-)"

[Alwaysaniron]

"Russ of the BML I love your optimism but there's no chance those 2 will come to us. Maddison wants CL football and Tielemans too most likely. Win on the 7th and there might be a slim chance Dec signs a new contract, gives us a further year to advance and then says yeah or nay to staying longer. If Dec stays we get better options for sure.."

[ironsofcanada]

"The thing that impressed me today and gives me a lot of hope going forward is his use of his body. I think when he first came he wanted to do it all with skill and therefore wanted too much time. He, not being a small player, now expects and leans into challenges, rides them and allows himself the half second he needs to use his skill. Something to look forward to."

[Russ of the BML]

Ron Greensward 1:38 Tue May 9 I'd try and get Tilemans and Madison. Go with a midfield of Tielemans holding and Paqueta and Madison doing their thing.

[Ron Greensward]

Wonder whether he could be used as Dec's replacement? We could then use Dec money on e.g. Madison (would need us to win ECL to be in with a shout tho).

[Russ of the BML]

"southbankbornnbred 11:24 Tue May 9 Your comment about targets ahead of him is so true. That's why I would play a 4-3-3 with Rice, Paqueta and Fornals with instructions to Fornals to get forward. Then in front of them Bowen, Benrahma and a main striker. That way when he gets the ball he has for forward options. If he can't he's then got Rice to look for."

[cholo]

"I think part of the problem was he just wasn't fit the first half of the season, remember he had a subdued world cup for Brazil and missed some of it with mystery illness, with a Paqueta firing on all cylinders we'd have seen a different Brazil and he'd have got up to premier league pace much quicker."

[southbankbornnbred]

"Finally settling in to English football and showing some real class, isn’t he? Let’s be blunt: it took him a while to get up to speed (language, new country, new club, new role: all understandable) and Moyes didn’t seem to know what sort of player he’d signed. But he’s beginning to show it now that he’s found his more natural position sitting a little deeper. Really hoping he kicks on from the start of next season. No excuses at that point. He still needs some decent targets and talent ahead of him, though. Whether that’s an adjusted Scamacca if Moyes goes, or an alternative to the ageing Antonio and the frustrating (but better than some think) Benny. Would love to see a new manager come in and fully think through how to maximise this fella’s skills. Moyes gives the impression he just expects Paqueta to play roles he’s not always suited to."

[Romfordboy]

When we collect the rice money we should build a team around him. Obv that would be too sensible

[fraser]

"Rice didn't play against City, I'm presuming he knew that. :-)"

[Rossal]

"Delighted he has finally turned up the last month or so. Bags of talent on the ball in terms of taking it in tight areas and playing forward. The flicks and tricks are great to watch. He has started to pose more of a threat going forward to now which is what we signed him for Hopefully we get a new manager which can get 10 goals a season out of him next year. That should be his target, 10 goals 10 assists"

[SullyHammer]

Does anyone think his form will drop once Rice is out of the equation. I can imagine most players are playing with confidence knowing he is by their side/behind them?

[SullyHammer]

Does anyone think his form will drop once Rice is out of the equation. I can imagine most players are playing with confidence knowing he is by their side/behind them?

[Mex Martillo]

"Great entertainment, love seeing him on the ball taking the piss out of anyone that trys to take him on. Can compete with anyone in the league and he’s our man."

[marty feldman]

Fantastic player when on form 1st half kept on misplacing passes . Second he was out of this world . He's a proper west ham player. lyall would have loved him works his nuts off as well .