CandH Exclusive by our northern correspondent Terry Robbins
Jesse Lingard has received no formal offer of a new deal from Manchester United, despite boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer publicly stating he is part of his plans.”
Jesse Lingard during the Premier League match at the London Stadium,
And senior insiders at Old Trafford have admitted that while suggesting to the midfielder they want him to stay on a mooted wage increase taking him to £140,000-per-week, Lingard has nothing on the table, except promises right now.
ClaretandHugh were told this morning: “United are making all the right noises, telling Jesse he is still a part of the manager’s plans, but this supposed offer of a new deal hasn’t been forthcoming.
“Ole has spoken to the player but United aren’t backing it up with formal negotiations for a new deal. This has left some people here wondering just how serious the club are about allowing him to run down the final year of his contract.
“United are sending out some very mixed messages and, as things stand, Jesse still has one foot out of the door – he’s been in London this week with the rest of the squad for tonight’s friendly match at QPR.
“Jesse is likely to be involved again but not much can be read in to that – nor Solskjaer saying how much he remains a big of his plans.”
Lingard has remained tight-lipped on his future, but with no concrete talks over a new deal, it seems clear United are trying to stall for time and, at the same time, portray a tough stance to both the 28-year-old and Irons, in terms of maximising any transfer fee before the window closes.
All he has to do is put in a transfer request to move things along in any direction but haven’t heard of him doing that, so less than convinced he wants to join us rather than sees us as a fail safe back up option if he doesn’t get what he wants at Man Utd, which he won’t. He needs to open his eyes to the fact that his time has ended there and look to where he will get plenty of game time and chance to go to next year’s world cup. That won’t happen at MU, but he needs to make his mind up now or we move on, we have a big important season to prepare for.
As has been said so many times in the last few days, hasn’t this saga run its course? It seems that Man. Utd. are playing mind games to increase any potential fee and that Lingard himself is reluctant to leave. Time to draw a line under this sorry mess and to go for a better option in Pereira ASAP.
As far as I’m concerned nothing will happen until Sancho is officially signed, this one has all the hallmarks of a long protracted process, worth being patient for a few more weeks whilst the market is practically dormant.
What Selsdon said.