The Lingard saga isn’t quite over!

By CandH’s top blogger Allen Cummings

At long last the circus is over – the main performer has packed his trunk and said goodbye to Manchester – but is heading for Nottingham not London.

That has to be a relief for all of us, no matter what side of the fence we sat. But this being West Ham, we all know the fall-out from the Lingard saga will continue for quite a while yet – it always does.

The inquest has already begun and will rumble on – based mainly on what we ‘think’ we know about the deal.

We were frequently told that Lingard’s people were looking at a mega pay day for their boy.,£200k a week was the figure that was banded around – beyond what West Ham, or Everton and Newcastle United were prepared to pay.

Now via the Daily Telegraph we’re informed Jesse has agreed a deal at around £80k a week – a very long way indeed from £200k – but a figure that could reach £120k with add-ons – still well off that eye-watering £200k though.

What West Ham actually proposed isn’t known yet, and maybe never will. But it clearly wasn’t enough to persuade the player he should join us permanently.

I always believed we would have benefitted from having Lingard at the club. If we’re seriously looking to improve the depth of the squad why wouldn’t you want to add a proven England international with bags of experience of playing at the top level of the game.

But it had to be on our terms – the right terms for the club. Terms you would expect David Moyes – and there was clearly no bigger fan than him – agreed were right and fair. Rightly so.

Of course the ‘pay them what they want’ brigade won’t agree with that sentiment – and while those that didn’t want Lingard in the first place will be happy with the final outcome, their gripe will be that we aren’t out there making the signings they demand.

As fate would have it our second game of the new season will see us travelling to the midlands to take on Nottingham Forest – and a possible confrontation  with their new signing – a certain Jesse Lingard.

So for those of us hoping the ‘L’ word will now drift off into the distance – it’s likely we’ll have to suffer it for a little while yet.