West Ham United and Ipswich Town agree secrecy deal amid Jesse Lingard development
West Ham and Ipswich have both agreed not to film or publish any footage from their behind-closed-doors friendly, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper reported on their website Thursday (7 September) that Jesse Lingard is set to feature for the Hammers in the game the same day, as the club “consider offering” him a contract to return to the club, having been training with them over the summer.
Wolves are also interested in a deal for the former Manchester United and Nottingham Forest man, 30, but after the agreement between West Ham and Ipswich to keep developments under wraps it appears there will be no public evidence of his or anyone else’s performance at Rush Green.
Lingard left the City Ground after a single campaign and the end of last season, having played only an hour of Premier League football since the start of 2023.
David Moyes had hoped to bring him back to the London Stadium on a number of occasions prior to that after his successful 2021 loan but had repeatedly been left disappointed.
Decision time
The links between Lingard and West Ham have been somewhat of a saga ever since he left the club the first time around, after scoring nine times and providing five more assists in just 16 games.
With the benefit of hindsight even the former England international would surely agree that he should have returned before now, as he barely featured in his final year back at Old Trafford before his high profile move to Forest didn’t work out.
Two years older and with so little football under his belt in the intervening months his quality has likely dropped, and while it would have been unlikely that he maintained his sparkling form from that half-season loan it would surely have been better than what he produced amid sparse opportunities in Manchester and Nottingham.
But if Moyes is to finally get him back in the squad then it looks like it will be now or never since Wolves are emerging as a threat.
Whether the West Ham boss needs Lingard as an option now is perhaps open to debate since Mohammed Kudus has been brought in at considerable expense.
But after missing out on a deadline day striker the Scot may prefer an extra attacking option if he is anywhere near a decent level, so if it is affordable a late signing could now be imminent.
In other West Ham news, Fabrizio Romano has shared a major transfer update around the end of the Saudi transfer window.