With only four weeks to go until the start of the Premier League, teams are starting to position themselves in terms of transfers, both in and out, and West Ham look set to miss out on one of their targets with Atletico Madrid gazumping them for Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard.
The Spanish giants and current league champions are preparing to enter the bidding for a player who galvanised the Hammers in the second half of the 2020/21 season, doing himself no harm in the process.
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Indeed, the Daily Mail report that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will shortly hold talks with the attacking midfielder in order to get him to extend his stay at Old Trafford, something that appeared extremely unlikely at the start of 2021.
With West Ham struggling to meet a potential transfer fee of £25m, that has let in Atleti according to 90min, and Diego Simeone’s side have enough cachet at present to make the move attractive for Lingard.
He only need look at the example of England colleague Kieran Trippier as proof that English players can become a success on the continent.