Jesse Lingard has spoken about his future after joining West Ham on loan from Manchester United back in January.
The England international was one of the Premier League’s most in-form players in the second half of the season, earning a recall to some of Gareth Southgate’s England squads, even if he ultimately missed out on the final cut for Euro 2020 this summer.
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Lingard’s Man Utd future is now dominating headlines as it remains unclear where he’ll be playing his football next season, but he’s hinted that he’s had positive talks with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The 28-year-old says Solskjaer spoke to him while he was at West Ham and sent him supportive messages, perhaps hinting that he’s confident he could have a role to play at Old Trafford in the 2021/22 campaign.
“Regular football is the most important thing for me,” Lingard told Sky Sports.
“After going on loan and getting a good run in the team, you started to see the real me, with the goals and the assists.
“I’ve never doubted my ability, I’ve always believed in myself. I spoke to the manager (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) in pre-season and said, ‘I need game time’. He said, ‘we can discuss it December time’, and we spoke again and he agreed to let me go on loan.
“I had various conversations with him during my time at West Ham. He was very supportive and it was a great loan for me.”
Most United fans would surely agree that Lingard now deserves another chance in the Red Devils’ first-team, even if he had previously fallen out of favour.
Lingard’s time at West Ham has been a reminder of what he’s capable of when he’s at his best, and he could give MUFC more spark in attack next season after a lack of impact from Anthony Martial, Juan Mata and Daniel James in that area of the pitch.