It’s understandable that there’s a clamour from West Ham fans to get a permanent deal sorted out for Jesse Lingard as soon as possible, but usually these things need to wait until the end of the season.
The Hammers still have a chance of Champions League football next season so that will make a huge change to the budget, while it’s important to assess Lingard over a greater period of time.
He’s been fantastic since making the move to London but it’s common to see players excel when they’ve been given a new lease of life, while it will also be useful if he can prove he can still make the difference when the pressure is on.
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Ultimately that means any negotiations may need to wait until the summer, and some comments from David Moyes suggest that’s what the fans should expect at this point (Quotes from Goal)
“We have not thought about that really, we have not taken it any further at the moment. We have him on loan and he is doing a good job for us just now, I think we will discuss that and probably look at it at the end of the season.
“But it is not something that we have taken any further than the situation we are in just now. He has looked very good this week and I think since he came in everybody has been a bit surprised with how good his fitness is, how good his all-round game is.
“I can see by the way he is working he is even getting better, his physical data has got better and overall he has been very good for us. He has helped us and given us another string to our bow and given us more attacking options, so we are really pleased with him.”
It does look like the sensible option from the club, but there’s always the chance that it could backfire if he continues to play at a ridiculous level between now and the end of the season.
Other clubs may enter the race, Man United may jack their asking price up or even look to keep him, but that’s something to worry about in the summer.