Aston Villa transfer interest in West Ham’s Lucas Paquetá was baffling – he isn’t what they need

Aston Villa reportedly made a concerted effort to sign Brazilian attacking midfielder Lucas Paquetá from West Ham United in the summer transfer window.

Villa manager Unai Emery seems to be a big admirer of the 28-year-old and he’s not the only one. The desire to bring Paquetá to Villa appears to be tangled up with the club’s panic acquisition and subsequent treatment of Harvey Elliott, and therefore the fate of Monchi, Villa’s former president of football operations.

Consequently, we’ll never know exactly how the Paquetá talks unfolded – Fabrizio Romano staked what little reputation he has on the transfer happening before the player made a big show of putting a pretend phone down on Emery and Monchi – and the rest of us went off on our merry way.

Why did Villa pursue the transfer of Paquetá?

Villa and Paquetá crossed paths again on Sunday, when Emery’s team came from behind twice to beat West Ham and win a sixth Premier League game in a row.

At some point in the second half of that match, in which West Ham scored twice in the first 25 minutes, I noticed that Paquetá was playing. That’s not said to be unkind or dismissive to make a point – it’s the honest truth.

While the experienced international has been able to hurt Villa on occasion, Sunday was just the latest encounter that left me wondering what Emery sees in him.

Far be it from me to question the manager’s eye, but I couldn’t get my head around the idea of spending big money on Paquetá at the end of August and nothing I’ve seen since has changed my mind.

He touched the ball 46 times against Villa. More than a quarter of his attempted passes were not completed. That’s not to say he had no impact at all – no teammate completed more progressive passes and that’s a well established strength for Paquetá – but he didn’t noticeably affect the game.

And the thing is, for the kind of sums that were being talked about late in the summer to bring in a 28-year-old in his position, a player needs to noticeably affect the game.

I’m not suggesting that Paquetá has no value as a player – far from it. It’s very clear that he is a talented and creative asset when he’s on it. We’ve seen it first-hand against Villa.

Investing in Paquetá now could be a mistake

Yet I remain surprised at the apparent extent of Villa’s interest. His heatmap for the season so far shows a player who spends his time in the opposition half with an ostensibly creative brief but has contributed directly to a goal every 405 minutes in the Premier League this season.

Mind you, one of those was a penalty; one to think about from a Villa point of view.

The concerns from my perspective are twofold.

Firstly, if you look at Paquetá’s involvement in possession around the opposition box he stacks up pretty well in pure numbers terms. Yet the strongest part of Paquetá’s game when compared against other attacking midfielders and wingers in the Premier League this season is putting in the graft to make more defensive contributions than the average.

For me, that intensity without the ball wasn’t evident against Villa.

Secondly, while he can theoretically compete with some of the Villa players in similar roles when it comes to things like key passes and passes into the box, he can’t match any of them for consistency.

Statistics don’t tell the whole story. As Villa supporters, we know that better than most this season. But it has to be acknowledged that Paquetá comes with baggage too.

No player in any of Europe’s top five leagues has more yellow cards in 2025/26. He’s already been sent off this season and the reason for it was surely alarming for any club considering dropping a serious transfer fee on him.

And that, really, is the root of my confusion. Paquetá is a capable footballer with the ability to make things happen. At his best, he’s comparable to Villa’s more attacking midfield players.

But Villa don’t need ifs and maybes. Villa are looking to take the next step in spite of their financial limitations and they need sure things. I don’t see how spending the money needed to prise Paquetá away from West Ham, given what we know, adds up in that reality.

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