Man Utd are reportedly ready to step up their pursuit of Flamengo starlet Lucas Paqueta as it’s claimed that they’ll launch a €50m bid for the youngster.
The 21-year-old is enjoying an impressive season thus far, scoring seven goals and providing four assists in 29 appearances for the Brazilian outfit.
Most comfortable in an attacking midfield role, he could arguably be an ideal addition for United to add a different dimension to their attacking options through the middle, and Calciomercato report that the Red Devils could be ready to launch a €50m bid to acquire his services.
However, AC Milan, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are all specifically mentioned in the report as also being interested in the talented Brazilian starlet, and so it remains to be seen if Man Utd are set to push their way to the front of the queue.
Although Jose Mourinho has countless attacking options in the likes of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard and Alexis Sanchez to play behind Romelu Lukaku, there is a potential argument that Paqueta would add a different dynamic.
With his technical quality and energy in mind, he could be a top addition for any of the clubs mentioned as being interested, with United perhaps able to find an ideal balance in midfield given the likes of Nemanja Matic, Fred, Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera offer something a little more defensively.
Time will tell if they make a concrete offer though and if that is matched by any of their competitors, as a case could be made for Milan in particular that they could do with a player of Paqueta’s quality given Gennaro Gattuso’s ongoing reliance on his preferred trio of Giacomo Bonaventura, Lucas Biglia and Franck Kessie.
Barcelona added Arthur and Arturo Vidal to their midfield this past summer, while Thomas Tuchel has an abundance of quality options in Paris. It remains to be seen which club emerges as the one to successfully convince the Flamengo man to move to Europe, but on paper, United and Milan are arguably the most sensible options.