Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard has been told to move to a club “like West Ham” by former Reds midfielder Paul Scholes in search of regular game time.
Lingard has had a tough season at Old Trafford but has scored twice in his last two games to find some form at the back end of the campaign as United made it through to the quarter finals of the Europa League by beating LASK Linz on Wednesday night.
The 27-year-old has made 39 appearances across all competitions for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side this season but only nine of them have been starts as he has had to settle for a substitute role, especially since the January arrival of Bruno Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon.
Scholes, in his role as pundit for BT Sport, believes Solskjaer may have already decided to move Lingard on this summer having substituted the midfielder despite scoring against LASK, hauling Lingard off on the hour mark.
“28 in December, he should be at the peak of his career. Does he want to be playing 10, 15, possibly 20 games a season at his age? I don’t think so. I think he still has ambitions to get into the England squad and he needs to find some form for that,” Scholes said post-match.
“Is he going to get that chance? I don’t think so at United unless there’s a lot of injuries and a lot of people out. I don’t see him getting a lot of games unless he moves to a club, say a mid-table team like Everton, West Ham.
“Jesse is a good lad, there’s a lot of ability in there. He just needs a run of games to do it and I don’t think he’ll get that at United.
"Tonight was a game where you think it’s a chance for him to play 90 minutes, along with Fred, but when Ole took him off after an hour I thought that this was a sign that he is probably thinking of moving him on."
Midfield isn’t particularly an area where West Ham manager David Moyes is looking to strengthen this summer as he wants to sort out his leaky defence that shipped 62 goals last season.
Especially attacking midfield with the club already having Pablo Fornals and Jack Wilshere on the books, plus Grady Diangana returning to east London after his loan spell at West Bromwich Albion.
However the manager has been linked with a transfer for QPR number ten Eberechi Eze though Crystal Palace are currently favourites for his signature. Brentford’s Said Benrahma is also a reported target.
Moyes needs to sell to buy this summer and is looking to offload Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini but as of yet the club has had no offers for either of the duo, who boost Moyes transfer budget to the tune of between £35million to £40million if their valuations are met.
