It has now been confirmed Lucas Paqueta has been cleared of spot-fixing charges by an independent regulatory commission but the damage has been done for West Ham.
Two years ago next month the FA launched an investigation into West Ham star Lucas Paqueta.
Now the verdict has finally arrived, putting the Hammers and Paqueta out of their misery.
The dark cloud that has been hanging over the Brazilian and the club has now cleared.
The FA responded to criticism from West Ham as it was leaked Paqueta has been absolved with an official announcement to come next week.
Top contacts inside West Ham told Sean Whetstone that Paqueta’s legal team were informed of the verdict on Friday evening.
Paqueta is in the US for pre-season with the West Ham team, where he has cut a much happier figure than the 27-year-old reduced to tears after being booked against Spurs at the end of last season.
Legal team get confirmation Paqueta has been cleared
The same Paqueta who stood alone at the end of the final game of the season at Ipswich waving an apparent goodbye to West Ham’s travelling fans.
Paqueta stood accused of being booked on four separate occasions to influence betting markets.
The Hammers playmaker vehemently protested his innocence from the very start.
That has been maintained all the way through to when he was officially charged in April last year following eight months of investigations.
And nothing changed as it took another 11 months before the hearing by a three-person independent panel got underway – and a further four to finally reach a verdict.
The damage has already been done for Paqueta and West Ham, though.
Because the FA investigation cost West Ham £80m and the second best young player in the world.
When the allegations first emerged in August 2023, the Hammers had just won their first major trophy for 43 years.
Paqueta had set up the winning goal and his stock was high.
Declan Rice had been sold to Arsenal for £105m and West Ham were looking to cash in on Paqueta too.
David Moyes was facing a rebuild but he had a cunning plan.
Paqueta was days away from being sold to Manchester City when the investigation was announced.
Pep Guardiola wanted West Ham’s £51m record signing as part of his bid to refresh Man City’s midfield.
Paqueta – like most players – wanted the move too.
FA cost West Ham £80m and second best young star in the world
In fact those close to him revealed the Brazilian saw the Man City switch as a “dream move”.
At the time West Ham fans were at peace with the potential sale with many hoping it would allow the club to go out and sign some top young players and a much-needed quality forward.
A deal was agreed between the Hammers and Man City on an £80m deal for Paqueta.
West Ham will never get anything close to that £80m for Paqueta now.
Two years have passed and clubs generally don’t pay that kind of money for players over the age of 24/25.
West Ham will now look to sell Paqueta and the best they can realistically hope for is £30m – still a full £50m short of what they would have banked less than two years ago.
But the collapsed move to Man City is perhaps not even the worst part about the whole sorry saga for West Ham.
Because West Ham’s plan – which was agonisingly close – could have changed the entire direction of the club since.
Paqueta cleared but damage has been done for West Ham
The Hammers have been in the doldrums for the last 18 months.
It could all have been so different, though.
Both Moyes and Hammers vice-chair Karren Brady have confirmed that the Paqueta move was not the only deal that collapsed between West Ham and Man City that fateful week in August 2023.
Brady revealed the Palmer to West Ham claims were indeed true and that the Hammers had agreed a deal with Man City to sign the ice cold star who has taken the world by storm ever since.
Moyes went one further, revealing that the move was all but done as part of the deal which looked set to take Paqueta to Man City.
That was until it all collapsed when the FA announced its investigation into the Brazilian over alleged involvement in spot fixing.
That fact was even used as evidence in Paqueta’s defence during his hearing, with Moyes called to corroborate that the Hammers star had asked not to play against Bournemouth so as not to jeopardise his move to the Etihad.
That was a game where Paqueta picked up one of the four bookings forming the basis of the allegations.
The argument being the West Ham star could not have conspired to be deliberately booked in a game he wasn’t meant to play in.
Moyes and Brady confirmed Palmer was on his way to West Ham
An investigation based on allegations which have not held up to scrutiny given Paqueta has now been cleared.
“We were close, very close (to signing Palmer),” Moyes said before leaving West Ham last year.
“You can probably imagine the other part of it, where there was a possibility of somebody leaving here which might have made that work.
“I was in regular contact with his (Palmer’s) agent and we were well on the road with it but it just changed at the end (with the collapse of the Paqueta deal) and we couldn’t do it.”
Losing Rice and Paqueta in the same summer would have clearly been a blow.
But imagine a West Ham side with Palmer alongside the likes of Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus, who had been signed that summer.
The Hammers would undoubtedly have been able to go out and sign a top striker too.
And the club’s finances would not be such that they are now having to sell to buy – even to their bitter rivals Spurs for knockdown fees.
What course of action West Ham and Paqueta take now remains to be seen.
But it seems the only recourse that may be open to the Hammers and their midfielder is forcing the FA to pay Paqueta’s £1m legal costs.
That pales into insignificance compared to the £80m the club would have made from the Man City deal and worse still the scuppering of Palmer joining West Ham.
A sliding doors moment which has played a massive part in West Ham’s direction of travel since.
Suddenly the words from the club’s anthem seem so apt.
Fortune’s always hiding – and like my dreams they fade and die.
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