Tottenham Hotspur could be about to win the battle to sign West Ham United's creative spark Lucas Paqueta, according to reports - with a slashed asking price potentially putting Thomas Frank's side into the lead in an intense bout to land his signature over other clubs in the Premier League.
The report by CaughtOffside states that Tottenham are in the race for Paqueta's signature, despite their keenness to bring in Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace - with new boss Frank 'eager' to inject vision, creativity and versatility into his squad, which has suffered injury problems already this campaign.
Report: Tottenham Want to Sign Lucas Paqueta, Asking Price 'Slashed'
The attacking midfield star faces an uncertain future at West Ham, with interest increasing in his services, and now the Hammers may have to prepare for life without their creative maestro despite being cleared of any spot-fixing allegations that presided over him for the best part of a year.
However, with his reputation now restored, Tottenham are keen to take a punt on him to increase their creative ranks. Spurs are looking to close a deal for Eze, but at the same time, would like to add a combative nature to their engine room - and Paqueta has that in abundance with three years of experience at the London Stadium.
Paqueta's preference for a move is for top-level European football, which Tottenham possess having won the Europa League last season, and any notion of a move to Saudi Arabia or back home to Brazil has been firmly cast aside for now.
West Ham's perspective is clear. They have placed a £40million valuation on their Brazilian star, a huge drop from their £80million valuation that they fielded last summer before his legal case stalled any negotiations - though any move would be a surprise, with former Hammers teammate Mohammed Kudus having already undertaken the same journey this summer.
GIVEMESPORT Key Statistic: Lucas Paqueta has 11 goals in 55 caps for Brazil.
Although they would prefer to keep the £150,000-a-week Brazil international, the reality is that they are open to offloading him if Spurs can match the asking price - and any rebuttal could see them unsettle Paqueta with an exit now being deemed as 'likely'.
Paqueta has 93 appearances at Premier League level, scoring 12 goals in the process, as well as a further 28 in other competitions with six goals to boot in those trophies - and that experience in a central role at the age of just 27 could be vital for Spurs, especially with creative star James Maddison being ruled out for a large part of the season with an ACL injury that he unfortunately picked up in pre-season.