Summary Key takeaways: West Ham United will face a challenge in keeping midfielder Lucas Paqueta as Manchester City is expected to make another bid for him. Despite recent signings James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez, City's pursuit of Paqueta has dampened the excitement of new arrivals. Paqueta has made an impressive impact in the league and his stats suggest he could become one of the league's top midfielders if given the opportunity to play for City.
West Ham United will have to stand firm in the coming weeks if they want to keep one of their star players as Manchester City "will bid again", claims transfers expert Fabrizio Romano.
West Ham United news – what is the latest?
It hasn't been the window that West Ham fans would've hoped for following their historic win in the Europa Conference League final just two months ago.
Instead of welcoming in a swath of new faces to help them push on, climb the league table, and maybe have a good go at challenging for the Europa League, they sold the club captain and talisman Declan Rice to cross-city rivals Arsenal, floundered around looking for targets and struggled to sign those they identified.
That said, things have started looking up in recent days with the arrival of Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse and the exciting acquisition of Mexican international Edson Alvarez.
Read the latest West Ham United transfer news HERE…
These three players should help the East Londoners genuinely improve this year; however, the efforts of treble-winning City to sign their most dynamic midfielder Paqueta over recent weeks has somewhat dampened the excitement of new arrivals.
According to the Daily Mail, the Premier League champions have already seen an offer worth £60m rising to £70m rejected by the Irons, with the London side only willing to sell their star should they receive an offer close to the player's £85m release clause that'll come into effect next year.
While that is obviously a lot of money, with City's seemingly endless resources, it's not a hard valuation to reach, and according to transfers expert Fabrizio Romano, they will "100%" come back in with another offer for the Brazilian.
He provided an update on the situation on his YouTube channel, saying:
"City keep working on the Lucas Paqueta deal, because City will bid again for Paqueta, 100% I can guarantee to you."
How good is Lucas Paqueta?
Despite the Rio de Janeiro-born dynamo only arriving in the league last summer from Ligue 1 side Lyon in a deal worth £51m, he has already left quite the impression on fans, managers, and players alike.
His former captain Rice was full of praise for his quality and skill earlier this summer, telling the Evening Standard: "He's incredible, honestly, he's absolutely incredible."
In his 27 league starts last year, the £150,000-a-week man scored four goals, provided three assists, took 1.9 shots per game, maintained a passing accuracy of 80.2%, won four Man-of-the-Match awards and averaged a match rating of 6.97, per WhoScored.
His underlying numbers are also fantastic and suggest that were he given a chance to play for a genuinely dominant side like City, he could quickly become one of the league's most deadly midfielders.
According to FBref, which compares players in a similar position across Europe's top five leagues, the "spectacular" star sits in the top 1% for tackles and blocks, the top 5% for clearances, the top 6% for aerial duals, the top 7% for progressive passes, and the top 16% for attempted passes, all per 90.
The Hammers faithful can only hope that David Moyes and Co are able to keep a hold of Paqueta for these final three weeks, but that might be easier said than done with the immense financial muscle at the disposal of Pep Guardiola's side.