{"id":282763,"date":"2026-01-13T22:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/282763\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T22:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T22:24:09","slug":"prem-star-carricks-first-transfer-request-revealed-wilcox-has-final-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/282763\/","title":{"rendered":"Prem star Carrick&#8217;s &#8216;first transfer request&#8217; revealed; Wilcox &#8216;has final say&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Carrick has asked the Manchester United hierarchy to sign West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/man-utd-carrick-appointed-interim-next-manager-summer-ineos-tuchel-enrique\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Carrick is expected to be announced as United\u2019s interim manager until the end of the season this week<\/strong><\/a> and will reportedly be backed with funds in the January transfer window.<\/p>\n<p>Lucas Paqueta\u2019s 2025\/26 Premier League stats<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>4 goals, 1 assist in 18 games<\/li>\n<li>23 key passes<\/li>\n<li>95 progressive passes<\/li>\n<li>16 take-ons won (34% success rate)<\/li>\n<li>39 tackles (22 won)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/manchester-united\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>United<\/strong><\/a> opted to appoint an interim for the remainder of 2025\/26 after sacking Ruben Amorim at the beginning of January, with a view to bringing in an elite manager permanently in the summer.<\/p>\n<p>England boss Thomas Tuchel and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/man-utd-enrique-becomes-main-target-psg-winning-pedigree-ineos\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Paris Saint-Germain\u2019s Champions League-winning head coach Luis Enrique<\/strong><\/a> are among the leading candidates to replace Amorim, but it is all about Carrick right now.<\/p>\n<p>The 44-year-old\u2019s sole objective is to get the Red Devils back into the Champions League, with fifth place in the Premier League expected to be enough. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/premier-league\/table\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>United are currently seventh<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is a decent chance the former United midfielder, who oversaw three games as caretaker boss following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer\u2019s sacking in November 2021, will have money to spend this month, with a midfielder a top priority.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/man-utd-target-perfect-20m-midfielder-wilcox-ratcliffe-neves-transfer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Al Hilal\u2019s Ruben Neves is reportedly a leading target<\/strong><\/a> and is available for as little as \u00a320million, in what would be a no-brainer signing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE ON MAN UTD ON F365<br \/><\/strong>*\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/xabi-alonso-man-utd-club-spots-potential-mediawatch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Xabi Alonso to Man Utd \u2018plan\u2019 ON as club spots his \u2018potential\u2019<\/strong><\/a><br \/>*\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/who-will-be-manchester-united-manager-next-season-xabi-enters-the-building\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Who will be Manchester United manager next season? Xabi enters the building\u2026<\/strong><\/a><br \/>*\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/retro-football-manager-competition-manage-manchester-united-better-than-ruben-amorim\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Competition: Can you manage Manchester United better than Ruben Amorim?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Carrick wants West Ham midfielder as first Man Utd signing<\/p>\n<p>However, according to a report from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/hooligan-soccer.com\/michael-carrick-seeks-star-player\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hooligan Soccer<\/a>, via a \u2018team of five elite reporters\u2019 on X, Carrick\u2019s \u2018first transfer request\u2019 is West Ham playmaker Lucas Paqueta.<\/p>\n<p>It has been reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/west-ham-romano-reveals-paqueta-agreement-unhappy-star-asked-not-play-fa-cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Paqueta wants to return to Brazil<\/strong><\/a>, with Flamengo willing to pay around \u00a330million for the 28-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>Paqueta is said to be so keen on leaving West Ham that he has reportedly agreed personal terms with Flamengo and accepted a pay cut.<\/p>\n<p>He appears to have his heart set on a return to his home country ahead of this summer\u2019s World Cup, but United could yet throw a spanner in the works.<\/p>\n<p>Carrick is reportedly \u2018looking to expand his player pool\u2019 and has \u2018asked\u2019 the United hierarchy to sign Paqueta from West Ham.<\/p>\n<p>The former Middlesbrough head coach is not expected to have much influence over transfers. No United manager will. An interim certainly will not.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, director of football Jason Wilcox is expected to have the final say on all incoming transfers.<\/p>\n<p>Paqueta was previously linked with a move to Manchester City, but an FA investigation into suspicious betting patterns derailed that transfer and has clearly affected the former Lyon star on a personal level.<\/p>\n<p>A fresh start back home appears to be the perfect solution for Paqueta, rather than stepping into the current chaos at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the prospect of playing for the biggest club in England could yet tempt him to remain in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-manager-rankings-where-do-amorim-and-maresca-land-in-list-of-all-28-managers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League manager rankings: where do Amorim and Maresca land in list of all 28(!) managers?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Carrick has asked the Manchester United hierarchy to sign West Ham midfielder Lucas Paqueta, according to reports.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,794,19,17,114534,20,5,795,132,7238],"class_list":{"0":"post-282763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-home-page","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-lucas-paqueta","13":"tag-manchester-united","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-premier-league","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-west-ham-united"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115890137873852903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}