coach Stuart Pearce admitted last week that West Ham want to re-sign Lingard

West Ham coach Stuart Pearce admitted last week that West Ham want to re-sign Lingard following an impressive loan spell last season. Lingard bagged nine goals and four assists in just 16 outings for the Hammers, so Pearce’s public admission of the club’s interest hardly came as a surprise.

Neither does news of West Ham making an enquiry over the 28-year-old last week. However, according to ESPN, the Irons’ attempt to open a dialogue has been knocked back by the Old Trafford outfit.

That remains to be seen, but it’s interesting to note that Lingard featured as a substitute against Southampton on Sunday.

Combined with United’s rejection of West Ham’s enquiry, that suggests United are at least open to the idea of Lingard staying at Old Trafford.

While it seems he will unlikely be starting regularly over Bruno Fernandes in attacking midfield or the likes of Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford out wide, Lingard would no doubt be a decent squad player for United.

He’s an academy product, he can play in different midfield positions, he’s already made over 200 United appearances and he showed his quality last season.

Then again, Lingard’s contract expires in 2022, so if United don’t cash in now they’re running the risk of losing a wanted player for free in twelve months.

It’s not entirely clear at this stage with United’s departures this summer being exclusively loans for younger members of the squad – as ESPN report, Brandon Williams has joined the likes of Andreas Pereira and Axel Tuanzebe on the loan list.

However, it is further claimed United will need to sell players if they want to make any more additions, so we could see some late window movement if the Red Devils intend on adding another recruit.

United could perhaps afford to sacrifice either David De Gea or Dean Henderson after signing fellow goalkeeper Tom Heaton this summer, while 90min recently listed Donny van de Beek, Alex Telles, Eric Bailly, Nemanja Matic, Victor Lindelof, Phil Jones and Diogo Dalot as players who the club were willing to part with permanently.

ESPN, however, claim Dalot will now be staying at Old Trafford following Williams’ loan move to Norwich City.