West Ham United have not met Jesse Lingard expectations as Wayne Rooney makes approach
Jesse Lingard’s former teammate Wayne Rooney has made contact to take the West Ham target to DC United, according to 90min.
The former England captain has taken over in the American capital after leaving Derby, following a season of turmoil that saw them relegated from the Championship.
And one of his first moves has been to make contact with his ex-Manchester United colleague about joining him at the MLS side, where he also previously played.
The Hammers have made an offer for the free agent attacker, who left Old Trafford following the expiry of his contract, but it has reportedly not reached the salary valuation he expects.
Lingard, 29, previously had great success under David Moyes in a six-month loan spell during the 2020/21 season, and the Scot has been after him ever since.
But after opting to return to Manchester and fight for his place he was routinely left out by both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, and remains unsigned despite being able to speak to clubs for over six months now.
Dragging
It might be time for the manager to abandon this chase since there appears not to be too much reciprocation in terms of commitment to getting a deal done, which Moyes has shown for a year.
Lingard is well within his rights to hold out for what he believes he’s worth, but the club are within their own rights to move on to other players.
Wasting too much time, 12 months and counting, on attempting to re-sign a player who doesn’t see the club as a priority could have a detrimental effect on the team if it means they miss out on more achievable transfer targets.
Clearly the fact that he’s a free agent and has already been proven to work well with the Scot means it makes a lot of sense, but if the player is interested in a completely new challenge, as flirtations with MLS suggest he might be, then there’s not a lot that can be done.
It seems unlikely that he will receive bigger wages there than the Premier League, but football in the US is no longer just for those at the tail end of their careers.
Rooney is a draw in himself so it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see some big names follow him there, but whether Lingard will be one is impossible to tell.
He had a ready-made situation to walk back into at West Ham but has opted against it so far, and there is a rival offer from Frank Lampard’s Everton on the table that would also make a fair amount of sense.
The fact that he is apparently unsatisfied with either means all bets are off as to his next move.