Manchester City aim to ‘decrease’ transfer fee of £85 million Premier League star in summer swoop

Recruitment officials at Manchester City are reportedly eyeing a deal for West Ham and Brazil’s Lucas Paqueta, but only at a cut-price fee from his release clause.

The Premier League champions appear to have retained interest in the 26-year-old midfielder following an intense pursuit of the player during the last summer transfer window, when a deal came close to completion.

Unfortunately for both Manchester City and Lucas Paqueta, an FA investigation into alleged gambling breaches by the Brazilian meant that Etihad officials were forced into withdrawing their interest and moving onto other candidates for the central roles.

That led to City recruiting Matheus Nunes from Wolverhampton Wanderers on transfer deadline day, however the forthcoming summer could see negotiations with West Ham reopened, should Paqueta be cleared of his allegations by the Football Association.

But Manchester City appear to be intent on reducing the asking price at West Ham, despite a release clause becoming active and meaning that the Etihad club could have an easy pathway to making Paqueta Pep Guardiola’s latest recruit.

That is according to the information of Foot Mercato’s Santi Aouna, who reports that Manchester City want to reach an agreement with West Ham for Lucas Paqueta without paying the midfielder’s £85 million release clause.

It is claimed that the reigning Premier League champions want to only pay the release clause as a ‘last resort’, and as such want to ‘decrease’ the fee paid for the player having already reached an agreement with the midfielder.

Manchester City continue to be linked with other names from across the European game, especially when it comes to the midfield roles, with Jamal Musiala and Joshua Kimmich of Bayern Munich just two names appearing in various media reports.

With regards to the former, Manchester City are not too optimistic about their chances of luring the German international into Pep Guardiola’s system, and expect the former Chelsea man to pen a new deal at the Allianz Arena.

Kimmich however could be available at a cut-price fee, with his existing Bayern Munich contract running until the end of next season, and Manchester City in desperate need of a capable stand-in for Rodri during various moments of a season.