Paul Merson raves about West Ham deal to sign Lingard
Paul Merson has claimed that West Ham are the real winners of the January transfer window in the Premier League.
The Hammers welcomed Jesse Lingard on loan from Manchester United, and also made Said Benrhama’s loan from Brentford a permanent deal.
Whilst speaking on Sky Sports, Merson said he thinks over teams will regret not going in for Lingard if he finds his form.
“I do like the Lingard signing at West Ham,” he said.
“He has played for the biggest club in the world so if he can rediscover his form, I feel he could be the one where other teams are scratching their heads thinking, ‘why didn’t we sign Lingard?’
“He is still a good player and has been training well at United.
“West Ham could have a diamond there.”
Jesse to jump in
The arrival of Lingard in east London is a statement of intent from the club. The attacker is desperate for first-team football as he tries to get back in the England set-up.
He’ll be in the squad for tonight’s clash with Aston Villa, but whether he starts or not remains to be seen. David Moyes could potentially shake things up after the lacklustre performance against Liverpool.
His addition could be the final piece of the puzzle for Moyes. Through this season the Scot has interchanged the number ten role behind Antonio, unable to find a suitor.
Lingard could slot in quite nicely, and if he finds his form we could continue to push up the table.
As Merson said, we could have a diamond there.
But despite this loan switch, there was still a bigger talking point to come out of January. We parted company with record signing Sebastian Haller. A tough one to take, but one we absolutely accept.
What we can’t accept is the failure to find a replacement. It didn’t have to be a big-money signing, we just desperately need cover upfront. This blunder leaves us one Antonio injury away from a severe crisis.
Moyes has been let down again by the board. They have had two good transfer windows in the last year, bringing in the likes of Bowen, Soucek, Coufal and Benrahma.
They spent in times of desperation when it was feared we may go down.
The failure to invest in a striker now could prove costly. Only six points separate us in fifth and Crystal Palace in thirteenth.
It’s almost as if the owner’s arent bothered now they know we won’t be going down this season.
It other West ham news, these two pundits have predicted the outcome as we face Aston Villa.