It wasn’t a good night for Man United against Young Boys as they elected to play attack vs defence for over an hour after the red card, but they would’ve escaped with a point if it wasn’t for Jesse Lingard’s short backpass that gifted the Swiss side the victory.
It was a bad decision and an unfortunate situation for the sub, but it’s probably made worse by the fact that he’s fighting just to get a chance in this current team, so he needs to impress every single time he takes to the field.
He did that with West Ham during a loan spell last season and he did score a nice goal against Newcastle at the weekend, but it’s still not really clear if he’ll get a regular starting role or if he’s little more than a backup who’ll play in the cups and make cameo appearances from the bench.
Either way, it does look like United want to keep him around, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out:
Solskjaer confirms Man United are in talks to extend Jesse Lingard’s contract: “He’s [Lingard] got one year left on his contract and of course the club is talking to him and his dad. We see him as a Man Utd player in the future as well”. ? #MUFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 16, 2021
He turns 29 later this year so if he does want to leave then this is the time to do it, while signing a new contract also makes it harder for him to pick his next club as United will likely just sell him to the highest bidder.
It will surely come down to what’s being presented to him in terms of his Old Trafford future as he may need to accept that he’ll never have a key role, so that has to play on his mind with this decision.
If no extension is signed by January then he is free to start talking to European sides, so from his point of view, it may make sense to do that and see what else is out there.
It will also split the opinion of the fans as he’s not exactly popular after the mistake this week, so hopefully he can bounce back quickly and prove why he deserves more chances to play.