Manchester United are reportedly setting an asking price of around £30million for Jesse Lingard ahead of this summer’s transfer window.
The 28-year-old has been in superb form since joining West Ham on loan in January, and many Man Utd fans will surely now be wondering if the club should bring him back into the first-team fold next season.
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However, it seems United are ready to let Lingard go permanently, with the Daily Mirror claiming he’ll cost interested clubs £30m to prise away from Old Trafford.
This seems risky from the Red Devils, as one imagines they won’t be short of suitors for the in-form England international at that kind of price.
On the other hand, there perhaps doesn’t look like being a role for Lingard in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, so it might make sense to raise a decent amount of money from his sale, especially considering he came up through their academy so never cost them anything in terms of a transfer fee before.
It remains to be seen if West Ham could afford to make Lingard’s move permanent for that price, but former United midfielder Luke Chadwick told CaughtOffside that the Hammers seems to be the perfect home for Lingard.
“It’s an interesting one, there aren’t many if any players playing better than him right now in the Premier League. I think Ole likes him a lot but struggled to get him into the team at Man United,” Chadwick said.
“I think for Lingard’s career moving forward it looks like he’s just found the perfect home for him at West Ham; the team’s built around him to a certain extent and he’s obviously a confidence player, the top player in that team. You can see how much confidence he’s playing with.
“There’ll be no shortage of suitors but the way he’s going, West Ham could be the destination for him.”