Jesse Lingard off to West Ham on a loan deal

After a long time and with a lot of rumors floating around, it has been confirmed by the player himself that he is going to play for West Ham United on a loan deal. The former Manchester United player, Jesse Lingard, will try to recover some of the form he lost in recent years and getting his career back in track after a couple of years on a very low level. Lingard hopes that David Moyes, a manager he knows well already, would help him out.

The case of Jesse Lingard is very interesting. He was never a world class player or even remotely close to that, but Lingard proved to be quite useful for Manchester United in the past seasons, scoring big goals in finals and proving to be quite a good asset when the team needed to press or tracking back. Jesse Lingard was the definition of a decent squad player. That was until the 2018 World Cup rolled into town. Jesse Lingard contributed to a fairly decent England side that managed to reach the semifinals for the first time in almost three decades and his workrate, dedication and off-the-ball movement was good enough to be a starter in the national team. And that was when things went south.

Jesse Lingard never managed to reach another decent level of performances since the World Cup and every season he got worse, to the point that he was basically left out of the squad at Manchester United after Bruno Fernandes was signed. And the signing of Donny van de Beek was another nail in the coffin to Jesse Lingard, a Manchester United academy player. But things seem to be heading on a different direction now. Lingard confirmed on Instagram that he is joining West Ham on a loan deal and he is going to play with the Hammers until the end of this season, with the club covering all of his wages and with no option to buy.

David Moyes knows Lingard from the former’s time at Manchester United and he was the one that gave him a couple of chances in the club’s 2013 pre-season. So there is a relationship already established between the two former Manchester United employees. And considering that workrate, off-the-ball movement and pace are traits that have defined Moyes’ West Ham, that is a team that is going to fit quite well with Jesse’s profile.

In the worst case scenario, should Jesse Lingard persist delivering poor performances, he would go back to Manchester United, without the Hammers being forced to sign him on a permanent basis. On the contrary, if Lingard managed to deliver on a regular basis, then Manchester United could sell him for a decent fee, perhaps permanently to West Ham. A nice little deal that could work for all parties involved.