Pundit Shaka Hislop has claimed that he can’t believe Manchester City could be about to spend over £70m to sign Lucas Paqueta.
The Manchester club have been linked with a move for the West Ham United midfielder recently and have seen a £70m verbal offer turned down by the club, which David Moyes said is nowhere near the Hammers’ valuation.
With reports suggesting the Citizens are looking to make another bid for the Brazilian, one pundit and former West Ham player has had his say on this potential transfer move.
Hislop baffled by Paqueta price tag
Speaking in a recent video on the ESPN UK YouTube channel, Hislop had this to say about Paqueta’s potential move to City.
He said: “Good player but nowhere near £100m, I said that previously.
“When I saw the initial bid of £70m, I thought that was fantastic value for Paqueta and certainly the player he was for West Ham.
“As I said last week maybe Pep Guardiola has seen something that I don’t fully appreciate, maybe he sees him fitting in a way that I don’t see myself.
“I don’t think at any point last season Paqueta single-handedly controlled or dictated games. If you get that kind of money for that kind of player, you bite the hand off.”
Last summer, West Ham signed the 25-year-old from Olympique Lyon on a five-year deal worth a club record fee of £51m.
Across his debut season at the London Stadium, the midfielder scored five goals and supplied seven assists in 41 appearances in all competitions.
Having only joined the Hammers last summer and helped them win the Europa Conference League where he scored one goal and delivered four assists, one of which came in the final against Fiorentina, it’s easy to see why the east London club value him so highly.
With the Citizens still in the frame to sign Paqueta after seeing their £70m verbal offer turned down, this shows how keen they are to land a deal for him, even it if means splashing out more money that they may have initially wanted to.
