ExWHUemployee has claimed that he would not be surprised if West Ham United tried to sign former transfer target Jesse Lingard this winter.
Throughout the past summer, the Hammers were strongly linked with making a move for the attacking midfielder, who was a free agent at the time – with Ex even dubbing the whole saga as ‘ridiculous’.
In the end, though, Lingard signed for Premier League newcomers Nottingham Forest, agreeing to a deal said to be worth £115,000 per week plus incentives.
However, his move up to this point has not gone well. After 12 league outings, the 29-year-old is yet to score or deliver an assist at his new club and it looks as though he could soon be heading for the exit door.
Indeed, while speaking on The West Ham Way podcast, Ex said Forest are considering letting Lingard go, and while there is no evidence yet that West Ham will make a move, he wouldn’t be shocked if it happened.
He explained: “The good news is though for Moyes is that apparently, Nottingham Forest are considering terminating the contract of Jesse Lingard [and] that they might actually be prepared to let him go on a free transfer in January.
“Obviously, he’s only got a year’s contract anyway and he’s on big wages and they’re not playing him, so there’s actually some talk that they might let him go on a free transfer in January.
“Now, I’m not suggesting that David Moyes will go in for him. And I don’t have any evidence other than intuition, but it wouldn’t surprise me, and I don’t think it would go down very well with West Ham fans. But it will be interesting to see how that situation develops.”
TIF Thoughts on Jesse Lingard and West Ham…
Lingard arguably played his best football in recent years during a short loan spell under Moyes at West Ham where he delivered an impressive nine goals and five assists in just 16 outings in early 2021.
Clearly, he has not delivered anywhere close to those kinds of numbers in his time with Forest so far. His big contract will likely make him one of the club’s better-paid players, so it would make sense if Steve Cooper wanted to offload him soon in order to free up some finances he can put towards better prospects.
What’s more, he only signed a one-year deal, so if West Ham did want to make a move for the midfielder, they could probably pick him up on the cheap this winter.
Still, fans won’t have been happy that Lingard snubbed them in favour of Forest just a matter of months ago, so it remains to be seen if the Irons do actually have any genuine plans to reignite their past interest.
Would you want West Ham to sign Jesse Lingard this winter?
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