Former Hammer faces fierce criticism

Former Hammer Jesse Lingard has come under a fierce attack again from his new manager Kim Gi-dong complaining about a lack of effort.

The ex-West Ham loanee is yet to start a game for FC Seoul and his manager says  “I’ve been thinking a lot about removing Jesse. I don’t think a player who doesn’t run for a few minutes is a football player. If he doesn’t fight and doesn’t run better than the player who runs for 90 minutes?”

The K-League season kicked off earlier this month but Lingard has only featured from the bench in their opening three games.

He missed out the weekend’s 1-1 draw at Gangwon having suffered with a meniscus injury.

He was recently criticised by boss Kim after his most recent appearance, a half-hour stint during a 2-0 win over Jeju United.

The South Korean said: “Even though he came on as a substitute, he didn’t work hard and avoided tussle.

“The name value has no meaning on the pitch. I will tell him this exactly.”

Lingard is yet to provide a goal or an assist for his new club in Korea and supporters are already giving him a hard time by booing him.

Jesse scored nine goals and four assists in just 16 games for West Ham in 2020 while on loan from Manchester United but that seems a life time ago and he failed to matched that brief form which benefitted the Hammers during the pandemic.