West Ham United wait on Jesse Lingard decision with formal offer made
West Ham have made a form offer to Jesse Lingard as his Manchester United contract approaches its end this week, the Evening Standard reports.
The club are now waiting for him to make a decision on his future after “firming up their interest” with the official proposal.
He has returned from his summer break so a decision could be made any time now, with David Moyes making his latest attempt to bring the attacker back to the London Stadium.
However, there is competition for the 29-year-old as he is “weighing up offers from a number of clubs”.
The England international had a highly-successful loan spell with the Hammers in the second half of the 2020/21 season, scoring nine Premier League goals in 16 games.
He opted against making the move permanent at the end of his deal, instead hoping to break back into the first-team at Old Trafford but had little success in doing so under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Ralf Rangnick.
Fit
After the season he had back in Manchester it is clear that Lingard should have stayed with the Hammers. Had he been in the side who knows where they would have ended up in the Premier League and Europa League.
It made so much sense at the time, and it has been an enduring frustration for both Moyes and the fans that this is now the third transfer window where the club is still trying to make it happen.
The longer it goes the more it feels like he is going to end up somewhere else, but the fact that the Scotsman has maintained such commitment to the move throughout has to mean something.
West Ham feel like that are on the brink of making that next step, and while it was disappointing that reinforcements didn’t arrive in January to help make that happen the pieces are coming together to make another run in the upcoming season.
Star England internationals Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen were both subject to intense transfer speculation but now look more likely to remain, while incoming business is gradually being done in the form of Nayef Aguerd from Rennes and Alphonse Areola’s loan being made permanent.
Further additions are needed but that has to be cautious optimism among that fanbase at the moment.
Logically it would seem like a project that Lingard would be attracted to returning to, and if he does arrive the optimism may start to be somewhat less cautious.