The Athletic reported that West Ham are believed to have submitted an offer worth €40 million (US$39.93 million) to Lyon for Paqueta, who bagged nine goals and six assists in 35 Ligue 1 appearances last season.

“I’ll not talk about him but I can tell you that we have bid for him,” Moyes told reporters yesterday, a day before their Europa Conference League playoff second leg against Viborg.

“He can play as a number 10, an eight, and he plays as a false nine for Brazil quite often. I think his pedigree is really good.

“Pedigree doesn’t always guarantee that it works, but you would hope that it helps towards him possibly getting better.”

West Ham signed defender Emerson Palmieri from Chelsea on Tuesday, the club’s seventh signing of the summer, but Moyes said they had struggled to sign their transfer targets because players did not consider the club as a “biggie”.

“We have been saying, ‘We need that one (player) to make us a top-six team.’ That’s the difficulty we have found this season,” Moyes said.

“Have I lost count of the number of bids? I’d probably say yes. We’ve bid for a lot of players and if I told you who, you would burst out laughing and say, ‘You’re kidding.'”