00:00As West Ham look ahead to a crucial summer, the scale of the task facing Graham Potter
00:08is becoming clear. While signs of progress were visible during his first half spell in charge,
00:15the squad needs reshaping if the Hammers are to move beyond mid-table ambitions.
00:22From defensive reinforcements to creative midfield depth, there are multiple areas demanding
00:28attention. Potter's philosophy requires intelligent, technical, adept players and this window is his
00:35chance to bring more of them through the door. But how far can West Ham go with the resources
00:42available and how much patience will be granted for the project to mature? It's a balancing act
00:49between evolution and expectation. We caught up with James Jones of London World to assess
00:57what's on the to-do list this summer and what must change for West Ham to take the meaningful
01:03steps forward.
01:05Yeah, and just on Lucas Paquette, I mean, obviously, he's maybe not shown his out-and-out best this
01:11season for West Ham, but the performance away at Liverpool, he was fairly remarkable, even
01:16Arnie Schlotz said after the game, how he's come over from Dutch football and he's realised
01:21how tough the Premier League is because, you know, teams, Linger Schwinn, around the bottom half of the
01:26table, have these superstars still within their ranks. I mean, it's a big compliment from the manager
01:32who's going to go on to win the Premier League title. Just how important is Paquette when he is at his
01:38best and, you know, it's obviously not been shown as much as it could have been this season, but
01:43surely he's a player that they really want to make sure they keep in the summer and can take West Ham
01:48forward next season.
01:51Yeah, well, obviously, Lucas Paquette's future is still a little bit up in the air. There are a lot
01:55of question marks over what's going to happen with Lucas Paquette off the pitch. His case with
02:01the FA has been adjourned until the end of the season, so we don't really know. If it comes out
02:08positively, then the club will no doubt be looking, ideally, be hoping to keep him. It's clear that
02:14Graham Potter likes him and he enjoys playing under Graham Potter. You know, he's played his
02:19best football since Graham Potter came into the team and his best performance this season was
02:23arguably against Liverpool at Anfield last weekend, where particularly in the second half, he ran the
02:27show. And yes, people, you know, many were pointing at his attempts to try and buy a free
02:34kick in the lead up to Liverpool's corner that got them the winner. But that's Paquette. He does
02:41things like that. We know he's done that for the last three years. He has moments like that where
02:45he tries to do something a bit silly or try and win a free kick. But 90% of the time, when he's on
02:52his day, he's one of the best players on the pitch. You know, there's a reason why Manchester City wanted
02:57to pay £85 million for him before everything came out about his spot-fixing allegations. So
03:03he is a very, very important player for West Ham, a very important player for Graham Potter. And if we
03:08can keep him in that kind of form that we saw against Liverpool for the rest of the season, then
03:12he'll be a huge boost for us as we try and pick up as many points as possible, just to take a little
03:17bit of good feeling and a little bit of good positivity into the summer when that rebuild happens.
03:22If he does leave, then, you know, I think he's had a fantastic three years at West Ham United. He was
03:30the guy that set up Jarrod Bowen in the Conference League final in the last minute to win us that
03:35trophy. So West Ham fans love him. He's a frustrating player at times. But we know that on his day,
03:44and he was on his day against Liverpool last weekend, he's a fantastic footballer and an incredibly
03:49important player in this squad. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with his case,
03:54with the FA. But it does make me wonder, and this is pure just in my opinion, that perhaps
04:02we might be looking at a more positive outcome on that given the form that he's in at the moment.
04:08He's had a lot of distractions this season, but it didn't seem like he had any distractions on Sunday.
04:12So hopefully that's a good sign that we've got some positive news coming in May.
04:15But we'll see. We'll see. But at the moment, we just want to keep him, keep him in form,
04:21keep him playing like that. And hopefully it will help us start picking up some results.
04:26So hopefully, if we can get him back to his very best between now and the end of the season,
04:30at least, then, you know, that's incredibly important. But no doubt, regardless of his form
04:37this year, regardless of his lack of output, his lack of numbers, there will be no doubt a lot of interest
04:42and in this this summer.
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