Dean Jones has been speaking on the latest episode of The Football Terrace’s The Done Deal Show about West Ham’s stance on bringing Jesse Lingard back this summer.
Lingard impressed during his half-season loan spell at the London Stadium as he managed to score nine and registered five assists in 16 games, despite not playing a single minute of Premier League football in 2020/21 prior to his debut for the Hammers in January.
Will Lingard join West Ham?
Yes!
No!
It has been reported by Claret and Hugh that David Moyes has made Lingard one of his priority signings, but with the midfielder appearing to be in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plans for this season, any deal could be difficult to complete.
Jones offered a fresh update on where West Ham currently stand on the Lingard situation.
“West Ham, while they do want Jesse – I checked this out in the last couple of days just to see what their stance is – they’re basically going to remain patient for now.
“They’ll probably wait until the season begins, see whether he is in that team or even on the fringes of it, and then they’ll start to figure out whether they can make a bid, whether the player is still interested.
“There’s a lot of factors to take into account, there’s one that Jesse loved being at West Ham last season, being the star of the show along with Declan Rice – but is Declan Rice still going to be there?
“What’s his valuation now? Because when West Ham first signed him on loan and were looking to do a loan [with a view] to a permanent, you were looking at around £15 million and United were like, ‘no, we’re not doing that.'”
TIF thoughts on Lingard’s situation…
Lingard was a huge signing for the Hammers last season, winning a Premier League Player of the Month award and he was able to fill in as a false nine when Michail Antonio picked up an injury during the run-in.
The England international’s form was so impressive with West Ham that he earned himself a recall into Gareth Southgate’s squad, and the taste of international football may tempt him to go wherever he has the best chance of playing regularly.
With the Red Devils having options in the final third such as Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Mason Greenwood and soon to be Jadon Sancho, there doesn’t appear to be a lot of room for Lingard to fit into the starting lineup, so perhaps West Ham are wise to bide their time with this one.