West Ham United not out of Jesse Lingard race despite £200k p/w offer
West Ham United maintain hope in the race to sign Jesse Lingard despite a big offer from Nottingham Forest, according to The Times.
The 29-year-old is still a free agent having been released from his Manchester United contract at the end of 30 June and the Irons have been trying to bring him back to the London Stadium.
But the newly-promoted Reds appear set to win the race as they have put together a wage package more than £50,000 per week more than West Ham were willing to offer.
Forest have put an offer of £200,000 per week in front of the England international in a bid to win the hotly-contested race for his signature while the Hammers would only offer around £150,000 per week.
That would still make him the club’s highest-paid player ahead of Kurt Zouma on £120,000 per week but West Ham are unwilling to smash their wage structure to sign Lingard this summer.
Stubborn stance
West Ham United are being very clever in not going all out to sign Lingard because they would only come to regret it on the money that Nottingham Forest are supposedly offering.
The newly-promoted side are falling guilty of over-excitement at being in the Premier League for the first time and now they think they have money to burn, they are throwing it around willy-nilly.
The Irons are much more intelligent than that though and are aware that they can’t risk the short-term success of the club for the long-term consequences.
An attacking midfielder is not massively high on David Moyes’ agenda with a striker in much more immediate necessity but he would like to add one before the transfer window closes.
It should only be on our terms that West Ham sign a player in any position and no one could come in and destroy the structure currently in place.