Man U fear a new Lingard offer will be too late

The Red Devils are reportedly willing to offer the on-loan midfielder a new three-year deal, with the player out of contract in 2022 but smoke and mirrors is very much on their agenda!

Senior sources at the club have told me the Manchester club are simply “desperate” to protect what they perceive is Lingards’s true transfer market value – around £40m – thanks to his impressive displays with Irons.

Now they would rather dangle the carrot of a longer term deal, to keep his transfer value high, than be left smarting at having to accept roughly around half that figure this summer because of him entering his final 12 months.

And my sources add that  United have kept Lingard waiting more than two years to make him a new offer, leaving Jesse and his camp  frustrated.

Reports say United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer remains a fan of Jesse but the fact is he failed to make a Premier League start under the Norwegian during the opening six months of this campaign – making just two starts in the Carabao Cup and one in the FA Cup.

Our contact said: “There is nothing concrete in the pipeline yet with regards a new deal for Jesse, but United are putting it out there that they still consider him a valuable member of their squad.

“However, most of the talk inside the club is that they feel they may have left it too late with Jesse and he now wants to be starting games regularly. He holds all the cards right now.

“He knows Solskjaer has plenty of midfielders to choose from already and, while Lingard is United through and through, playing at West Ham and getting back into the England squad has opened his eyes to quite a few things.”

Lingard currently earns around £110k a week at United and people close to the 28-year-old continue to insist he will put his football before an easy cash grab, with him “Loving” his time at London Stadium.