Journalist Dean Jones has claimed that he wouldn’t be surprised if an offer went in for Lucas Paqueta from Newcastle United.
According to 90min, Newcastle United are about to ramp up their interest in Paqueta with Lyon’s asking price settling around £33m with add-ons.
Newcastle have acquired three players in this summer’s transfer window, but with them all being defensive options, Eddie Howe has recently said in an interview with Sky Sports that he is “looking for a couple of attacking players”.
With Howe in the market for some offensive talent this transfer window, Jones spoke to GiveMeSport and claimed he wouldn’t be surprised if an offer for Paqueta went in.
He said: “When you check out a story like this, you usually expect that it will just be knocked down, but it hasn’t been at all, actually.
“It’s one that has been kept alive by every single check call, so there’s definitely interest here, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if an offer went in.”
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TIF Thoughts on Jones’ comments…
Newcastle were heavily interested in James Maddison this summer, but after they had a second bid of £50m turned down, they might look to make progress on Paqueta, who might be available for a cheaper price.
Paqueta was a teammate of Bruno Guimaraes at Lyon, so this could be a deciding factor as to where the Brazilian midfielder ends up this summer, and he might have seen how well his compatriot has fit in on Tyneside and see a similar pathway for himself.
The 24-year-old midfielder still has plenty of time to progress as a player, and he produced impressive numbers last season for Lyon, finding the back of the net nine times and chipping in with six assists in 35 Ligue 1 games, so Howe might see this as something that his side needs this season if they want to have a successful campaign.