Jesse Lingard set to reject West Ham for Serie A transfer
West Ham United look set to miss out on Manchester United attacker Jesse Lingard who is preferring a move to Serie A, according to The Mirror.
The England international spent six months on loan at the London Stadium last season where he wormed his way into the hearts of Hammers fans with stunning individual brilliance that helped them to a Europa League qualification place in the Premier League.
He returned to Old Trafford at the start of this season but has spent the majority of the campaign sitting on the bench and now looks likely to leave Manchester for good.
The Mirror report that West Ham and Newcastle are the two English sides in contention but he may prefer to switch to Italy instead.
AC Milan, Juventus and Roma are the three clubs in Italy who are interested in the 29-year-old with Jose Mourinho, his former boss at the Red Devils, in charge of the atter.
He may be persuaded by the success of Chris Smalling and Tammy Abraham in Italy who are both excelling with Roma.
Not needed
He had a fantastic six months at the London Stadium and none of us will ever forget how good he was in helping us reach the Europa League.
But for all of that, 12 months have now passed and he is already nearing 30 which isn’t the kind of young signing David Moyes particularly wants for his Irons squad.
The Scot should be looking towards players who are 24 and under that he can get on the cheap although Lingard would at least be a free transfer if he were to join the Hammers.
The big issue for West Ham would be the wages the England international might request having been spoilt during his time at Old Trafford.
With Said Benrahma, Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals as attacking midfielders already, very similar to what Lingard would offer, West Ham should look to invest elsewhere with a striker and a defender high on the priority list.
In other West Ham news, Moyes shared a worrying injury update regarding one of his star players.
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