By and large, it was an excellent summer transfer window for West Ham United.
The Hammers looked like they were going to lag behind their Premier League opponents significantly until the week in which the 2023/24 season began.
That’s because there had been no one in through the doors at Rush Green at that point, but in the space of three weeks, David Moyes, Tim Steidten and David Sullivan have worked together to ensure that some brilliant deals got over the line.
Edson Alvarez has been an instant hit for the east Londoners, as has James Ward-Prowse, with Mohammed Kudus only getting a few minutes at Luton on Friday night and Konstantinos Mavropanos yet to make his bow for the club.
Against the Hatters, the moment of the match surely came when Lucas Paqueta floated a delicious pass right onto the head of Jarrod Bowen to score the opener.
If things had been different of course, the Brazilian wouldn’t have even been there. A move to Man City was mooted but collapsed because of supposed betting irregularities, and that could be the end of any move to the Etihad Stadium for the player.
‘I’ve no idea what Man City will do in four months regarding Lucas Paqueta honestly,’ Fabrizio Romano wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside Substack.
‘They’re very happy with Matheus Nunes and there’s nothing else with Paqueta at this stage. The conversations stopped almost two weeks ago when they decided to go for Nunes.’
Should Paqueta be cleared of any wrongdoing it remains to be seen whether City or anyone else comes in for him, as it seems clear that he sees his future elsewhere.
I’m not sure that he sees his future elsewhere, but the lure of City is too great for most players (see the saga with Nunes). It’s possible that if City are satisfied with Nunes in Jan. then Paqueta might sit tight at West Ham because no other club has City’s pull, bar Madrid and Barcelona. And of course if West Ham are still within the top 6 come Jan, they might decide to hold on to him knowing that his supposed release clause kicks in in the summer anyway!