Manchester City Have ‘Concrete Interest’ In £51 Million International

Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Manchester City are seriously interested in signing Brazilian international, Lucas Paqueta this summer.

Paqueta was only brought to the Premier League by West Ham last summer for £51 million, but despite a slow start t life in England, the midfielder starred as the Hammers went all the way in the Europa Conference League and lifted the trophy.

The Brazilian international managed to eventually settle into life at West Ham and ended the season with a respectable 12 goal involvements across all competitions, and while that helped the Hammers to European success and safety in the Premier League, it appears to have come at a cost.

Man City hold talks over Lucas Paqueta

Having lost Riyad Mahrez to Saudi Arabia, Pep Guardiola, and Man City are on the hunt for a replacement and someone who can impact games across several different competitions, and Paqueta has seemingly been identified as one of the main targets for the remainder of this transfer window.

According to Romano, it won’t be an easy deal for Man City to get over the line – likely due to him having only played one season for the Hammers who won’t want to lose another star player – but the Premier League champions are certainly giving it a go having held talks this week.

Manchester City have concrete interest in Lucas Paquetá. Talks took place with West Ham this week 🚨🔵🇧🇷 #MCFC

Not an easy negotiation but City have added him to summer targets list, as @marcoconterio @geglobo reported. pic.twitter.com/WnMbDkiEav

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 8, 2023

Paqueta has long been a wanted man in the Premier League with Newcastle United heavily linked with a move for the Brazilian after they signed his best friend and former teammate, Bruno Guimaraes, and also Manchester United have seen themselves linked with the samba star in the past.

West Ham unwilling to lose another star player

It would simply be a disaster for West Ham and David Moyes if they were to lose Paqueta having already sold their captain Declan Rice to Arsenal and, thus far, have failed to bring in any sort of replacement and in fact, the Hammers are still yet to make a signing this summer.

Moyes will likely be very adamant about keeping someone who was so influential in the second half of last season and given how slow and lacklustre West Ham have been in the transfer market so far, the Scottish manager will likely be reluctant to trust his club to find a suitable replacement before the end of the month.