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Earlier this week we covered claims from Brazil which stated Flamengo are still keen on signing Lucas Paqueta from West Ham United.

That came after reports, also from Brazil, a few weeks earlier had claimed Flamengo were confident that they could work around the player’s potential ban for breaking betting regulations.

There was a belief it could be dragged through courts and even if a ban was handed down that it wouldn’t count in Brazil. Whilst the second part of that hope felt a bit delusional, the first part appears to be quite possible with the case taking so long to reach a resolution.

Flamengo were said to believe they could use Paqueta’s desire for the move to pressure West Ham.

It’s not only the Brazilian club who are keen on the midfielder.

Rudy Galetti is becoming something of a specialist on the Saudi Arabia market and he reports Al-Nassr have returned for Paqueta following an initial approach at the beginning of this month.

The journalist states Al-Nassr have held ‘a new meeting with Paqueta’, but he then adds ‘the gap’ between them and the West Ham player ‘remains very large’.

That would suggest his camp are asking for too much money, perhaps with their mind set on a move to Brazil anyway.

Despite all of that, West Ham obviously have a big say here and if the betting investigation is going to drag on for much of the season, and potentially beyond, then they may be minded to keep him anyway.