Lingard value could rise to £40m amid superb West Ham form – report
Jesse Lingard’s value may have doubled in price and it could cost West Ham £40million to secure his permanent signature, according to The Sun.
The Irons pulled off a real coup in January when they won the race to sign the 28-year-old on loan for the rest of the season from Manchester United.
After a stop-start couple of seasons, Lingard has been a man reborn in East London with five goals in his first seven games enough to reignite his international career with England, who he featured for three times in March for their World Cup qualifying triple-header.
But West Ham may have made a fatal mistake in their temporary capture of Lingard with The Sun reporting that there is no ‘buy’ clause in his loan deal.
They claim that Manchester United were willing to offload him for as little as £20million in the summer but his stunning recent form has led them to reconsider this fee, which could now be doubled.
The Sun say a figure in this region could prove too much for the Irons.
Worth the big bucks?
A fee in the region of £40million would put Lingard among the most expensive Irons transfers of all time.
According to Transfermarkt the most expensive deal to date was the one that brought recently-departed Sebastien Haller to the club from Eintracht Frankfurt for £45million in 2019, while sitting in second is Felipe Anderson who cost around £34million from Porto.
Clearly those two transfers did not work out but they were both foreign imports who had no prior experience of the Premier League.
In Lingard, however, the Irons would be recruiting a seasoned Premier League performer who they know fits in with the team’s style of play and ethos.
Whether that would be enough to convince GSB to stump up the required cash remains to be seen, though.
The hope would be that his willingness to remain at the London Stadium, combined with Manchester United’s embarrassment of riches in the forward areas, would be enough to lower the asking price to an agreeable sum for West Ham.
If the Irons finish in a European spot this season, a move for Lingard could prove priceless to a strong showing in continental action next term.
In other West Ham news, Michail Antonio could cause real damage to Wolves duo at Molineux.