Paqueta - Latest news

[Alan]

"Sport Bible New report on Lucas Paqueta's spot-fixing charges reveals how much of next season West Ham star can play There has been an update on Paqueta's case. Alex Brotherton Lucas Paqueta will be free to play for West Ham for most of next season despite facing spot-fixing charges. Paqueta has been charged by the Football Association with four separate instances of spot-fixing. The 28-year-old stands accused of deliberately getting himself booked during four Premier League matches. It is one of the most serious cases of spot-fixing involving a top-flight player in England, and could land Paqueta with a lengthy ban. However, the Brazil international can continue to play until the disciplinary process has been completed. According to The Times, the outcome of the process could be delayed until the end of the 2024-25 season or beyond. That is due to the complexity of the case; Paqueta's lawyers say it will take many months to secure all the witness statements and relevant information they need for their defence. That's because the case spans three countries - England, Brazil and Spain - and involves a large number of people. The charges allege that Paqueta got himself booked during matches against Leicester City, Aston Villa, Leeds United and Bournemouth over the past two seasons so that “one or more persons” could profit financially. The investigation that preceded the charges took eight months. In September 2023, Brazilian outlet Globo reported that suspicious gambling patterns were identified in Brazil relating to Paqueta being booked against Aston Villa in March that year. The bets were reportedly made using West Ham's shirt sponsor Betway, via accounts belonging to people linked to Paqueta. The FA initially gave the player until June 3 to respond to the charges, but his lawyers were granted an extension. English football's governing body has refused to put a timescale on the case. Paqueta has been linked with a move to Brazilian giants Flamengo this summer, but this latest development will give encouragement to new West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui that he can use the midfielderthis season."

[Massive Attack]

Can this actually be challenged if he is found guilty or will it be like Tevez where we were acquitted at every level until they finally found some old cսnt that would rule against us and then said 'that's it no challenges to this ruling'?

That proper fucked me off at the time forcing us in to paying over £20M to Sheffield United. It stank like fuck and we just had to lump it. 

[Gank]

BREXIT MEANS BREXIT

[threesixty]

Given the extraordinary amount of time this has been ongoing then 4 to 8 weeks seems astonishing 
If it was such an open & shut case the trial should have taken a month with the verdict a week later at most
Presume the FA will be working on wriggling out of this without being sued to buggery

 

 

I think they’ll come up with a verdict saying he did it, but will not enforce a ban, like a suspended sentence. Hoping West Ham and Paq can’t drag them through the courts for loss of income and reputational damage. Any verdict that does not have a ban will be ridiculously controversial though. Yes, it will be interesting how their lawyers wriggle out of this one!

[El Scorchio]

Yup, quite simply it's disgusting if that's true and they know the verdict already but just aren't releasing it 'for reasons'. It just seems out of spite and designed to paralyse the club and the player during a transfer window.

Let's face it, it's West Ham and it seems the committee hired by the prosecutor to decide on this don't need need to actually consider actual proof so he'll almost certainly be found guilty even if our case is good. That's just how these things seem to go for us. It'll also conveniently save them a LOT of prospective payouts and compensation.

Can this actually be challenged if he is found guilty or will it be like Tevez where we were acquitted at every level until they finally found some old cսnt that would rule against us and then said 'that's it no challenges to this ruling'?

[Mike Oxsaw]

If he's been found guilty it's almost 100% certain that the verdict would have been "accidentally" leaked by now: the FA thus gains by being proved right and the media gain for being able to have another go at us on account of Tevez (either his surprise (to them) arrival and/or keeping us up single-handed).

[Fauxstralian]

Given the extraordinary amount of time this has been ongoing then 4 to 8 weeks seems astonishing 
If it was such an open & shut case the trial should have taken a month with the verdict a week later at most
Presume the FA will be working on wriggling out of this without being sued to buggery

[Lee Trundle]

Paqueta can be better. Much better
Think he needs someone in there to add physicality & pace & allow us to control the game further up the pitch
Maybe someone like this Ondeyika who has been mentioned rather than Soucek, Rodriquez etc
Lets see how that turns out


Was reading this morning that the hearing is actually complete now & the 4 to 8 week delay is for the announcement of the verdict
Not sure that was clear in earlier reports

Do they have the chisel the verdict out on stone that hasn't been mined yet, or something?

[Fauxstralian]

Paqueta can be better. Much better
Think he needs someone in there to add physicality & pace & allow us to control the game further up the pitch
Maybe someone like this Ondeyika who has been mentioned rather than Soucek, Rodriquez etc
Lets see how that turns out


Was reading this morning that the hearing is actually complete now & the 4 to 8 week delay is for the announcement of the verdict
Not sure that was clear in earlier reports

[Massive Attack]

In fact in all 3 seasons he's never scored more than 4 goals in the Premier League and a fair few of them were Penalties - 5 from 12 Prem from the spot.

[Manuel]

If he gets off he could be back to his best, in which case we'll have one of the most talented players on the planet on our hands. I wouldn't want to sell him.

That's a bit strong. On his day he is good but 1 of the most talented on the planet is a real stretch of how good he is. He never was anywhere near consistent enough or had all the ability in the world. I'm also not convinced that once it's over he'll then suddenly come in to his best form again, but hopefully you're right though.

Should he get cleared and remains, he does then need to repay the faith and support shown in him. 

 

I dunno. I think he is one of the most “talented” players around. He’s just not been effectively coached to make that talent consistent. The attraction with Paq is he has “DeBruyne levels” of invention. Some of the goals we’ve scored and picked up 3 points out of nowhere are down to him threading balls through to our forwards where he has no right to. 

He’s also pretty strong. Compare him to Anderson who couldn’t handle any sort of tackling, and you have a brazillain that can battle like a European grown player, but with flair. That’s pretty unusual. 

I think Pep saw someone who could replace KDB with a little coaching. And if they’d got him when they wanted they could have dealt with the decline of KDB and maybe won a title again. 

The thing that gets me about him is does who lose the ball because he’s with us and doesn’t trust passing to our crap player (seems the same with Kudus). I don’t think he’s like that for Brazil. 

Fuck me, that must be the biggest heap of crap I've ever read. You're actually comparing him to KDB and the reason he always gives the ball away is because our players are crap?? I fucking give up. And he's had a load of criticism from Brazil fans.

Bottom line is this fella only does his best work deep, very rarely in an around the box.

[Massive Attack]

He's so good at through balls he managed 0 assists last season after 36 appearances. Not a single assist as one of our most talented players in the world. It was only 7 assists the season before this one. He could only score 5 and 2 of them were by way of the penalty spot. One thing he is very consistent at is picking up yellow cards though. His output in goals being made for his apparent talent has been shocking ever since he's been here. Yes, on 1 of his rare good days he can be very good but nowhere near consistent enough.

And sometimes his lack of awareness and technique in the wrong areas of the pitch have led to us being in the shit defensively.

I actually want to really like him since he joined but I've got to be honest and say he's flattered to deceive a lot of the time bar the flash of brilliance like when he did lay it on a plate for Bowen to score that winner in a Conference League Final. 

[threesixty]

I genuinely believe Paqueta knew all too well what he was doing and is only surprised he got caught out and has played like a cսnt ever since. That's my gut feeling on the never ending fiasco that's continuing to hurt us either on the pitch or partly towards our transfer strategy. Just want him gone now after hopefully with a bit of luck he gets off due to lack of enough evidence regarding his lost blower and get a reasonable amount for him after everything that's happened. If a Club offered say £25M+ I'd be interested in the Club in doing something like that. 

I've got a bad feeling though he isn't going to get off with it.

If he gets off he could be back to his best, in which case we'll have one of the most talented players on the planet on our hands. I wouldn't want to sell him.

That's a bit strong. On his day he is good but 1 of the most talented on the planet is a real stretch of how good he is. He never was anywhere near consistent enough or had all the ability in the world. I'm also not convinced that once it's over he'll then suddenly come in to his best form again, but hopefully you're right though.

Should he get cleared and remains, he does then need to repay the faith and support shown in him. 

 

 

I dunno. I think he is one of the most “talented” players around. He’s just not been effectively coached to make that talent consistent. The attraction with Paq is he has “DeBruyne levels” of invention. Some of the goals we’ve scored and picked up 3 points out of nowhere are down to him threading balls through to our forwards where he has no right to. 

He’s also pretty strong. Compare him to Anderson who couldn’t handle any sort of tackling, and you have a brazillain that can battle like a European grown player, but with flair. That’s pretty unusual. 

I think Pep saw someone who could replace KDB with a little coaching. And if they’d got him when they wanted they could have dealt with the decline of KDB and maybe won a title again. 

The thing that gets me about him is does who lose the ball because he’s with us and doesn’t trust passing to our crap player (seems the same with Kudus). I don’t think he’s like that for Brazil. 

[Massive Attack]

I genuinely believe Paqueta knew all too well what he was doing and is only surprised he got caught out and has played like a cսnt ever since. That's my gut feeling on the never ending fiasco that's continuing to hurt us either on the pitch or partly towards our transfer strategy. Just want him gone now after hopefully with a bit of luck he gets off due to lack of enough evidence regarding his lost blower and get a reasonable amount for him after everything that's happened. If a Club offered say £25M+ I'd be interested in the Club in doing something like that. 

I've got a bad feeling though he isn't going to get off with it.

If he gets off he could be back to his best, in which case we'll have one of the most talented players on the planet on our hands. I wouldn't want to sell him.

That's a bit strong. On his day he is good but 1 of the most talented on the planet is a real stretch of how good he is. He never was anywhere near consistent enough or had all the ability in the world. I'm also not convinced that once it's over he'll then suddenly come in to his best form again, but hopefully you're right though.

Should he get cleared and remains, he does then need to repay the faith and support shown in him. 

[Fauxstralian]

Yes, understood some or all of the bets related to Paqueta & a fellow Brazilian being booked on the same day in La Liga
Appears the Spanish have treated it like the minor nonsense that it is while the FA were busy digging an enormous hole 

[Mex Martillo]

I agree threesixty. At about the same time the Spanish FA were also told of a player and a similar allegation. Spanish did nothing and nothing happened. As far as I read, apart from a few journalists comparing the different response of English and Spanish, no organisation or betting company questioned that the Spanish did absolutely nothing about the allegations.

[goose]

And they cost us £80m rather than addressing a minor issue with us to resolve it. 
How many businesses would continue a commercial relationship in that circumstance?

Every business would. You can’t cancel a contract because your commercial partner did the right thing.

They didn’t cost us £80m, either Paqueta did or the FA did.

[threesixty]

I assume from a compliance point of view, betway had no choice but to flag it up. That’s just how organisations work at that level. Im not sure betway are going after this aggressively though. I think it’s the FA themselves that have gone mad. Bungled the whole investigation (took his phone for weeks, didn’t get anything then asked for it back after he’d got a new one etc). 

It’s gone on so long because they don’t really have a case beyond circumstance. Which they could rule in with their power. But the legal ramifications for them destroying the guys career and losing West Ham 80m quid in a sale to Man City on “circumstance”, well that’s immense. 

I imagine the FA are shitting themselves right now. 

[Mike Oxsaw]

I don’t understand how our relationship with Betway continued after it was them that reported him
Especially after I imagine the squad were encouraged to use them
Youd hope if there was suspicion of these very minor inappropriate bets the company would have contacted the club & had him told to pull his head in
Its not as though if true they were being fleeced for millions 

Because Betway had to legally report this?  They've done nothing wrong (apart from offering these stupid types of bets to begin with).

Bookies have to do alot of things and many don't or weasel round it. Only we could have a betting company as our sponsors who are stupid enough to grass up the company they are in partnership with. 

It's an almost certainty, given our history, that several brown envelopes changed hands, coincidental but not legally linked to the sponsorship deal.

[Rossal]

I don’t understand how our relationship with Betway continued after it was them that reported him
Especially after I imagine the squad were encouraged to use them
Youd hope if there was suspicion of these very minor inappropriate bets the company would have contacted the club & had him told to pull his head in
Its not as though if true they were being fleeced for millions 

Because Betway had to legally report this?  They've done nothing wrong (apart from offering these stupid types of bets to begin with).

Bookies have to do alot of things and many don't or weasel round it. Only we could have a betting company as our sponsors who are stupid enough to grass up the company they are in partnership with. 

[Percy Dalton]

We're a proper cheapskate club when it comes to sponsorship Tottenham Liverpool and Man Utd get mega deals from sponsors and we get holiday and double glazing companies that go bust. Del boy comes to mind.

[Lee Trundle]

Nothing would please me more if he gets let off.

He, hopefully, gets back to his best.  We have a good asset on our books again.  And the betting company gets screwed over.  Everyone's a winner.

[Gank]

I genuinely believe Paqueta knew all too well what he was doing and is only surprised he got caught out and has played like a cսnt ever since. That's my gut feeling on the never ending fiasco that's continuing to hurt us either on the pitch or partly towards our transfer strategy. Just want him gone now after hopefully with a bit of luck he gets off due to lack of enough evidence regarding his lost blower and get a reasonable amount for him after everything that's happened. If a Club offered say £25M+ I'd be interested in the Club in doing something like that. 

I've got a bad feeling though he isn't going to get off with it.

If he gets off he could be back to his best, in which case we'll have one of the most talented players on the planet on our hands. I wouldn't want to sell him.

[Lee Trundle]

A betting company with morals? You're having a laugh. 

Could easily have been handled with a quiet word. With the amounts involved it would never have come to light had they not escalated it

Why would they risk their gambling licence to do that?  What benefit would they get out of doing something highly illegal such as that?

[John Drake]

A betting company with morals? You're having a laugh. 

Could easily have been handled with a quiet word. With the amounts involved it would never have come to light had they not escalated it

[Lee Trundle]

I don’t understand how our relationship with Betway continued after it was them that reported him
Especially after I imagine the squad were encouraged to use them
Youd hope if there was suspicion of these very minor inappropriate bets the company would have contacted the club & had him told to pull his head in
Its not as though if true they were being fleeced for millions 

Because Betway had to legally report this?  They've done nothing wrong (apart from offering these stupid types of bets to begin with).