Chelsea defender Thiago Silva claims he tried to convince his club into making a move for Lucas Paqueta before he sealed his transfer to West Ham.
The Brazilian finalised his £52m switch from Lyon earlier this week but, speaking ahead of the game against the Hammers, Silva revealed he did hold “conversations” with those in charge at the Blues about recruiting his international teammate:
“I heard he was about to leave Lyon [so] had some conversations here with some people, but unfortunately things didn’t work out. The last week arrived, this thing got a lot [clearer] and we had some other priorities because of the injuries we have in the team. So we needed a striker, another defender. A midfielder, was a little less. I think that’s why things didn’t evolve well. But I’m happy for Paqueta because West Ham certainly have a very good structure, it’s a great club in the Premier League scene.”
West Ham supporters will be glad that Silva didn’t make any headway in terms of bringing Chelsea into the race for Paqueta’s signature.
Thomas Tuchel’s side spent heavily in the summer transfer window, shelling out a record £271m in transfer fees, so they would have had the means to hijack the deal if they had stepped up their interest.
As it is, though, the Irons now have a top-class international at their disposal and they will be looking to him to help move them up the table in the coming weeks.