Journalist Dean Jones insists that Newcastle United remain keen on bringing Jesse Lingard to the club this summer.
Having been left out of favour under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, the attacking midfielder was thought to be keen on a move in January.
Both Newcastle and West Ham were strongly linked to the 29-year-old, but despite a meeting with Rangnick on Deadline Day to try and force an exit, he was told that he wasn’t allowed to leave the club.
Would you like to see NUFC sign Lingard?Yes
No
|
Now with his contract up at the end of June, Jones believes that the Magpies will try to sign the £18m-rated maestro as a free agent despite interest from the Hammers.
He told GiveMeSport: “I’m not convinced about Newcastle not being able to afford his wages. I’m sure they could find a way around that, they’re desperate to sign Jesse Lingard. I think it’s really a tug of war between the two.”
TIF Thoughts on Lingard and Newcastle…
The Telegraph recently revealed that any move to the north-east was off for the 32-cap England international due to his wage demands, which were believed to be £150k per week.
Those requirements don’t seem reasonable considering he appeared in little over 10% of United’s total Premier League minutes this season, playing just 355 – less than four full games.
However, he still has the full backing of teammate Angel Gomes, who called the Englishman a ‘baller’.
|
|
It has been a season to forget, but Lingard will be hoping to rediscover the form he showed while on loan at West Ham for the second half of the 2020/21 campaign, when he scored nine goals and made five assists in 16 appearances – but whether that career revival will come on Tyneside or not remains to be seen.
In other news, Be a big coup’ – Journalist excited as NUFC eye ‘top’ international to ‘close’ gap on top sides