“We were hoping for a bigger club” – Chief reveals West Ham signing ‘wanted to leave’, made do with Hammers

Despite having a rather successful 2021-22 campaign under David Moyes, West Ham United knew they needed to strengthen their squad, and set out to do so this summer.

In the end, two centre-backs, a left-back, two midfielders, a winger and a striker were signed, with Lucas Paquetà coming in as an effort to bolster the heart of the squad.

The Brazilian was signed from Lyon in an expensive deal towards the end of the transfer window, but it was clear he wasn’t West Ham’s first choice.

Bids for the likes of Matheus Nunes were made beforehand, but those were unsuccessful, leading the Hammers to eventually hand over close to £40m to sign Paquetá from the Ligue 1 side.

He’s only made three appearances to date, and it appears Moyes isn’t trying to rush him in as he adapts to English football, but it seems leaving Lyon was inevitable for the player, as revealed by the French club’s director of football, Vincent Ponsot.

Speaking to Olympique et Lyonnais, the transfer chief was asked about the player’s sale to West Ham.

He said: “There’s an economic aspect and another in whether the player wants to be part of the project. We said the change from last year was to have players who wanted to be a part of it. You need them to want to stay. With Lucas, we had talks in March, in April and even during the summer because there weren’t necessarily the clubs there he was hoping for.

“His position was always very clear, though: he wanted to leave. We recruited to anticipate his exit. I think our midfield has all the qualities to perform. From the moment he was in agreement with a club, even if we were hoping for a bigger club, we entered talks and we wanted to defend Lyon’s financial interest as best we could. He was very clear and his position never changed, even with the arrival of John Textor.”

While they could have made it clear to the player that he wasn’t going to be sold, Ponsot explained that in Paquetá’s case, because he wanted to leave so badly, it just wasn’t worth it.

In fact, he added that the Brazilian ‘absolutely wanted to go to the Premier League’, and while they weren’t forced to sell him, they decided to do so for the good of the team.