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Jesse Lingard will be regretting not making West Ham move says Ray Parlour
Arsenal legend Ray Parlour has said Jesse Lingard made a mistake in not leaving Manchester United to join West Ham last summer.
The 29-year-old lit up the London Stadium during a loan spell last season when grabbing nine goals in 16 league games but ultimately decided to stay and fight for his place at his boyhood club rather than make the move permanent.
Opportunities have been hard to come by for Lingard though since returning and with him now set to leave the Red Devils Parlour reckons he missed a trick not leaving when his stock was high.
“He must really regret that he didn’t stay at West Ham,” he said on talkSPORT (4 May, 9.20am).
“Suddenly, he was back in the England squad and he thought; ‘Well, I’m gonna go back to Man United’. But he was never going to get a regular game.
“The performances at West Ham were unbelievable.”
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Hasn’t Worked
It seemed ambitious at the time for Lingard to go try to force himself back into the picture at Manchester United and so it has proved as he’s barely featured at all this season after being so impressive last year.
You can understand the reluctance to leave his childhood club but he must’ve known there was a reason they’d loaned him out in the first place, and then the subsequent arrivals of Jadon Sancho and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo were going to make game-time near impossible.
That said it could be a situation which David Moyes can look to capitalise on as, much like during his loan spell, Lingard has a point to prove again after the hierarchy at Old Trafford remain seemingly nonplussed about his imminent departure.
If the Scot can bring him back to the London Stadium, you’d back him to get him firing once again.
In other West Ham news, the club could still look to sign this defender on a free transfer according to a journalist.
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