£35 MILLION: FLAMENGO LAUNCH IMPROVED BID FOR WEST HAM STAR LUCAS PAQUETá
Lucas Paquetá is pushing for a £35m move to Flamengo as West Ham battle relegation. Discover why Nuno dropped him for the Sunderland game.
Flamengo has put in a bid worth up to £35 million ($46.9m) for West Ham’s Lucas Paquetá. They’re offering £30m up front in instalments, plus another £5m in add-ons, hoping that’s enough to get the deal over the line for the Brazilian international. West Ham wants £40m, but folks at Flamengo believe they can work something out before the transfer window shuts on February 2.
Paquetá has 18 months left on his West Ham contract, but he’s itching to head back to Brazil now. He’s already agreed on personal terms with Flamengo—his old club—through December 2029.
At first, West Ham wanted £44m for Paquetá, but after talking things over with their shareholders earlier this month, they dropped their price to £40m.
Manager Nuno Espírito Santo really doesn’t want to lose him in the middle of the season. He sees the 28-year-old as a nailed-on starter, someone they need if they’re going to avoid relegation.
Paquetá joined West Ham from Lyon in the summer of 2022. He’s got four goals and one assist from 18 Premier League games so far this season.
Espírito Santo spoke with Paquetá this week and gets why he wants out, both for personal and professional reasons. Still, with all this up in the air, Paquetá isn’t in the squad for Saturday’s home game against Sunderland. In fact, he hasn’t played since January 6 and missed the back-to-back wins over QPR and Spurs.
“He’s not going to be in the squad for this match,” Espírito Santo said at his Thursday press conference. “Everyone knows how I feel about Lucas, but we have to deal with this day by day and find a solution. Everything that happened before just made things harder, but now that’s in the past. I hope Lucas and the club can figure something out so we can move forward.”
West Ham sits 18th in the league right now, five points from safety.
AWONIYI DOUBLE LEAVES NOTTINGHAM FOREST ON THE VERGE OF PREMIER LEAGUE SAFETY
Nottingham Forest moved closer to safety with a 3-1 win over Chelsea, while West Ham fell into the relegation zone after Spurs won.
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Nottingham Forest came out of the weekend looking pretty safe after pulling off an impressive 3-1 win at Chelsea. They’re almost clear of the relegation mess. Tottenham’s big away win at Aston Villa shook things up too, and now West Ham are back in the bottom three, running out of time faster than ever.
Forest have stepped up just when they needed to, leaving West Ham and Tottenham behind with a string of solid performances. Honestly, no one saw this coming, especially since Vitor Pereira shuffled his lineup with eight changes, fresh off a Europa League win against Aston Villa.
Even so, Forest were ahead within 90 seconds, thanks to Taiwo Awoniyi’s quick strike. By the 15th minute, Igor Jesus calmly buried a penalty after Malo Gusto’s reckless foul in the box. Chelsea had a chance to get back in it, but Cole Palmer wasted a penalty right before the break after a scary head collision involving Jesse Derry.
Awoniyi doubled down and scored again early in the second half, pushing Forest six points ahead of West Ham with just three games left.
West Ham’s weekend started badly; they looked flat and lost to Brentford. Things got worse Sunday night when Tottenham pulled off their first back-to-back Premier League wins since August 2025, beating a heavily rotated Aston Villa side 2-1.
Forest is now out of West Ham’s reach, or almost. Tottenham’s still close enough for Nuno Espirito Santo’s team to worry, but with three tough games coming up, Spurs could stay up even without another win, unless West Ham digs deep and pulls off something unexpected before their home finale against Leeds.
Right now, Forest can practically taste safety. Spurs finally see a way out after weeks of struggle. As for West Ham, they’re left hoping for a miracle, a last-minute twist to dodge the drop.
CESC FABREGAS CONFIRMS INTEREST IN PREMIER LEAGUE RETURN AMID CHELSEA'S MANAGER SEARCH
As Chelsea searches for a new manager, Cesc Fabregas breaks his silence on his future at Como and his Premier League ambitions.
Cesc Fabregas recalls exactly how a conversation with Jose Mourinho prompted him to join Chelsea, despite having the opportunity to return to Arsenal.
After winning six trophies in just three seasons, the Spanish World Cup winner left Barcelona for the second time in 2014. That summer, Fabregas made a move back to the Premier League, signing with Chelsea for about €33 million.
He already knew English football well. Fabregas had arrived at Arsenal as a 16-year-old from Barcelona in 2003 and made 212 Premier League appearances for them. When he decided to leave Barcelona, Manchester City also wanted him, but Chelsea convinced him, mostly thanks to Mourinho.
Talking with talkSPORT’s Rory Jennings on YouTube, Fabregas laid out how it all happened. “Honestly, when I made up my mind to leave Barcelona, my first thought was just to go back to Arsenal. They had this buyback clause; they had two weeks to use it after I told them I was leaving. They knew about it but didn’t take it. That surprised me a little, but in the end, I had to think about my career. I was 27, at the peak of my career, and I wanted to continue performing and winning trophies. City and Chelsea were both options.
“But when Mourinho spoke to me, that was it. He showed me his plans for the team and told me about Diego Costa, Courtois, and Filipe Luis and how, with those guys, we’d win the league. He was right, by the way. We won both the Premier League and the Carling Cup.”
Fabregas wasted no time winning over Chelsea fans. On his debut at Burnley, he set up two goals, including a stunning assist for Andre Schurrle. He finished his first season at Chelsea with five goals and 24 assists, along with Premier League and League Cup medals.
Things dipped the next season. Fabregas got just 15 goal contributions, and Chelsea slipped all the way to tenth. But when Antonio Conte took charge in 2016-17, they bounced back, and Fabregas picked up another league title.
He added an FA Cup win in 2018, his second, after his earlier one with Arsenal, and left for Monaco a few months later. His last Chelsea match came in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest. When he got subbed off, he couldn’t hold back tears.
Chelsea supporters still sing about him; that “Oh, Fabregas is magic...” chant sticks around. And with his name in the conversation for a possible return, maybe they haven’t seen the last of him yet.
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