West Ham merely a ‘stepping stone’ to better things | Report

Bearing one striking similarity with another illustrious Hammer who departed for a lucrative Premier League career at the top level with Manchester City, claims emerged yesterday that Lucas Paquetá was only ever ‘passing through’ at West Ham and intended to use the club merely as a launch pad for his own career.

Yesterdays Daily Mail made the claim that their own source inside West Ham was pretty clear from the outset that, much like former Hammer Carlos Tevez, West Ham’s Brazilian record signing had his eye on bigger and better things and never meant East London to be his permanent home:

The perception, outside of the squad at least, was of a man on a stepping stone. That he was passing through and in a bit of a hurry.” Writes Riath Al-Samarrai, quoting his own source inside the club.

The mapped out career came crashing down when the allegations from the FA broke and Paquetá’s £80 million move to Manchester City died a death. According to the mail, Paquetá’s mood deteriorated as the allegations created news across the Atlantic and calls for him to be dropped from the Brazilian team:

“He might not have seen West Ham as much more than a launchpad, but the Brazilian national team? That was in his heart. The idea that a problem in London could become a threat to his place over there made this even more real.

Exile never materialised, then or in the two years since, but he did grow tetchier, which was understandable in the circumstances. According to my source, [ says the Mail] he sulked away from one of David Moyes’s training sessions in those early weeks and then refused to go on a school visit.”

Clearly, whatever the outcome of the FA Inquiry, Paquetá’s post – allegations match performance at West Ham has been blighted by