West Ham are working on their most exciting deal since signing Dimitri Payet.
The reported pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain attacking midfielder Javier Pastore belongs in a completely different category to virtually every other deal negotiated in the era of the two Davids.
Kaveh Solkehol reported on his personal Twitter account on Friday afternoon that the Hammers are trying to sign the Argentina international for £17.5million this summer.
West Ham in talks to sign PSG midfielder Javier Pastore. PSG willing to sell this summer.€20m deal
— Kaveh Solhekol (@SkyKaveh) June 1, 2018
If transfer and contract negotiator David Sullivan could land Pastore at that price, his rapidly diminishing reputation would get a huge lift.
He would be a brilliant signing who’d instantly become the best player at the club and deliver the thrills and spills that have been missing since Payet got the hump and returned to France following an unforgettable 18 months.
Pastore has the class to lift fans off the seat, with his touch, technique and capacity for the unexpected likely to make him a huge favourite.
Some will claim he can’t be that great if he wasn’t a regular at PSG in the recently-completed domestic season.
But, given that the French champions signed the two most expensive attackers in history last summer in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and he was fighting for a place also with Angel di Maria, Julian Draxler and Thomas Meunier, there is no shame in that.
Moreover, check out his track record.
In addition to making 29 appearances for Argentina amid the fiercest competition for attacking players the country has ever had, he has also scored 45 goals and supplied 62 assists for PSG from 269 appearances.
He is also still only 28 and has plenty of years left at the top.
With just a year remaining on his contract, PSG are vulnerable to losing Pastore for a knockdown fee.
If West Ham could sign him, it would be a jaw-dropping move.
