Lucas Paqueta: West Ham's David Moyes confirms bid for Lyon midfielder
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Lucas Paqueta joined Lyon from AC Milan for £18m in September 2020
West Ham have made an offer for Lyon's Brazil midfielder Lucas Paqueta, their manager David Moyes has confirmed.
The Hammers are reported to have made an offer of about £34m, external for the 24-year-old.
Paqueta scored nine goals and contributed six assists in 35 Ligue 1 appearances last season.
"He can play as a number 10, an eight, and he plays as a false nine for Brazil quite often. I think his pedigree is really good," said Moyes.
"Pedigree doesn't always guarantee that it works, but you would hope that it helps towards him possibly getting better."
Moyes was speaking the day before West Ham's Europa Conference League qualifying tie against Viborg.
Paqueta, who has scored seven times in 33 games for Brazil, played for Lyon against West Ham in last season's Europa League quarter-final, which the Hammers won 4-1 on aggregate.
He has scored 21 times and contributed 14 assists in his 80 appearances for Lyon since joining from AC Milan two years ago.
West Ham are the only Premier League club yet to earn a point or score a goal after three matches this season, following defeats by Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Brighton.
'People would laugh at who we've tried to sign'
Moyes signed left-back Emerson Palmieri from Chelsea on Tuesday in a deal understood to be worth £15m. It was the club's seventh signing of the summer.
But the Hammers boss added people would "burst out laughing" if they knew which other players West Ham had made bids for.
He also said he had lost count of the number of offers the club have made as they look to strengthen before the window closes at the end of August.
He said: "We've bid for a lot of players and if I told you who, you would burst out laughing and say: 'You're kidding.'
"Maybe we've tried to go way above our station, but we have tried to get really top players because I knew we needed it.
"A couple of top players coming in would give everyone a lift and help ease the pressure on Declan Rice, Michail Antonio and Tomas Soucek."
On the complexities of trying to get deals done, Moyes said: "It's been a very difficult market. We've found the agents really difficult and very, very expensive to get that side of the deal done.
"So much is getting added on to things now. If the real world knew where it was going, and what was happening, it would be a shock."
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