Former Manchester United forward Jesse Lingard may be given the chance to kick-start his Premier League career with West Ham boss David Moyes refusing to rule out a deal for the free-agent.
In hindsight, Jesse Lingard’s outstanding form during that London Stadium loan in 2021/22 was less a ‘new’ dawn and more a ‘false’ one. The exception rather than the rule in the 30-year-old’s top-flight career; Lingard has not come close to matching those remarkable levels of consistency and influence either side of that brief yet brilliant spell in claret-and-blue.
The England international remains a free-agent two months after a short-term deal at Nottingham Forest expired.
But after being offered the chance to build up his fitness again at the club where he played the best football of his professional career, could the Manchester United academy graduate be offered a lifeline by a familiar face?
Jesse Lingard may go back to West Ham
“Jesse has trained for three weeks and he’s improved greatly since when he came in,” Moyes, who spent just eight traumatic months at Old Trafford in 2013/14, tells talkSPORT.
“He is in a much better condition. I want to give him every opportunity to get him back in condition and see how he does
“I have to say, when Jesse joined us two years ago, I think he scored nine goals in 15 games and was probably the difference between us getting into Europe for the first time.
“There’s no real update on it at the moment. Just to say that he’s back and getting much closer to the levels of fitness where you’d hope he would be.”
Released by Manchester United
Lingard made over 200 appearances for United, and was understandably disappointed by his backseat role under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick before his eventual departure in 2022; denied the chance to build on those oustanding West Ham displays after returning to his boyhood club.