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.”"

[stubbo]

"From what I've seen, he's an ok player, but simply not the player we needed. Moyes was after a 'Payet' style player...give them the ball and let them weave some magic, by beating a couple and doing something genius. This guy to me seems a bits and pieces centre midfielder. Average in the tackle, reasonable in the air, ok in the pass, but clearly the league is much faster than more physical than he's used to (which is always the problem buying from abroad, especially slower leagues like Italy and France). 50m these days though isn't colossal dough, when you look at the players making moves for it. A starting central midfielder for Brazil for 50m isn't terrible business in theory....but he doesn't remotely fit into our team, given the way Moyes plays. Same with Scammaca....they're simply the wrong players for the way Moyes sets up, and realistically that's all he knows. Chances are this guy ends up moving back to France for about 20m."

[Mad Dog]

Nice how you glossed right over your obsessive hatred of benrahma. You also glossed over the fact I said he might not be suited to premier league

[Full Claret Jacket]

"Looks like a fair weather player. Fine when things are going well but anonymous when you need players to stand up and get stuck in. Looks frustrated and disinterested to me. Language barrier cannot be helping. You don't get time on the ball in this league and you can't stroll around the pitch and let the opposition run past you. How he is playing ahead of Downes, Lanzini or Fornals on current showings I'm not sure."

[Come On You Irons]

"Nice to see all the predicable excuses have been lined up: - He can't be that bad, he plays for Brazil (who were knocked out of the World Cup by Croatia) - His confidence is shot - His shit passing is because he can't be bothered and is 'fed up'. Utterly ridiculous and desperate the amount of excuses that are made for this fella."

[Mad Dog]

"Come on you irons, you've also spent 2 whole years cunting off benrahma, claiming he's a fraud and ""championship player at best"" You've been suspiciously quiet about that. Paqueta isn't a bad player. You can't be that bad if Brazil have you in their starting 11. Whether he's right for the Premier league or for a moyes side is a different thing altogether. He started off well yesterday, and disappeared like everyone else (except benny) when we went down yesterday. He's also having all the flair stifled out of him like everyone else. Why he can't seem to pass consistently is probably an attitude thing. He's undoubtedly fed up and now can't be arsed"

[twoleftfeet]

“ I called it in a September “ Next time we sign a player I’m going to “ call it “ Bound to get it right eventually.

[Come On You Irons]

"Yet another awful performance last night from this dickhead. The second goal came from a thrown in to Brentford in our half that was caused by CRAPqueta kicking the ball out of play in one of his many misplaced passes. I called it in September that this guy is not a £50 million player and the club spunked its dough on a dud. There is a reason why all of the top clubs swerved him, why he didn't cut it at AC Milan and why he was plying his trade for a bang average side in a bang average league, when we came along to pay way over the odds for him. The club's awful, amateurish transfer business comes home too roost yet again."

[Gaffer58]

"Paqueta is fine when he had footballers around him but afraid at least 5/6 of any team Moyes plays are not pass and move type players, Moyes only seems to be successful when his teams are playing long balls pick-up second balls, or playing for corners or set pieces."

[DukeofDevo]

PAQUETA ffs where does lawyer come from!

[DukeofDevo]

"Lawyers was garbage Monday night, I’d like to see his pass completion rate! Arsenal played well in swarming around us when we had the ball but we didn’t make it easier by giving the ball away so cheaply! Likely to get out muscled by Brentford on Friday unless we wake up"

[Moncurs Putting Iron]

Soucek is making both Rice and Paqueta look worse than they are.

[SullyHammer]

"Funny enough we played Lyon, Paqueta and Emerson did not stand out for me at all. Look where they are now....."

[SullyHammer]

"Funny enough we played Lyon, Paqueta and Emerson did not stand out for me at all. Look where they are now....."

[stewie griffin]

Miguel ALMIRON scored 9 goals in 110 games under dinosaurs Benitez and Bruce He's got 9 in 16 this year and looks like one of the best players in the league.

[BRANDED]

Fuck we bought some shit in the summer

[Manuel]

A 50 million quid Brazilian and according to some it's the managers fault that he can't pass the ball or run around much. Fucking turn it in.

[goose]

Do you think that change will help him make simple 5 yards passes? Or encourage him to run a bit more?

[Willtell]

"West Ham we’re the only buyers for Paqueta as the top 6 passed. I think it’s their loss. When Moyes moves on and we set up with a full eleven that can defend, press the opposition and attack in force, he will still be there playing an important role in the team."

[northbankboy68]

A complete waste of money

[chelmsfordhammer]

Paqueta like the majority of our squad could be mustard now if we had a manager that could get the best of them. Sadly we have one dimensional moyes instead

[arsegrapes]

Paqueta will be mustard in the Championship.

[iphammer]

Another waste of money signing. Who actually wanted him Moyes or Sullivan ? He’s a lazy player. Anderson was better

[goose]

This made me lol: Paxo @claretnblue_stu Moyes buying Paqueta is like watching my Nan when she bought Sky Q

[cholo]

"I noticed last night he was passing to players in tight situations that he thought were playable from the receivers pov, but they (from memory Cress and Vlad) ended up hoofing it in a panic. Maybe his former Lyon team mates are better on the ball in a league where you get more time, that would certainly be the case in the Brazil team and international football. Or maybe it's just a case he doesn't suit this league, more talented south Americans than him (Veron and Di Maria for starters) have struggled too. Hopefully he'll adapt but I can't ever see us getting £50m worth out of him."

[master]

You do not judge a decent car when it's driven by the worst driver. You don't need Senna driving but someone better than Doris the blind lady is probably worth holding out for