United hope for a £20 million plus Lingard auction

Manchester United are this morning reported as being likely to want more than £20 million for Jesse Lingard.

The Old Trafford club – despite not using the 28 year old last season -appear to have high hopes that they can cash in big time on the attacking midfielder.

And that represents something of a cleft stick for the Irons who, whilst wanting him at his absolute best for the rest of the campaign, know what that will mean – other clubs will be watching closely.

The Sun claim that United will want in excess of £20 million for a player who has scored three goals and registered an assist for us since he arrived.

But clearly there’s little difference now to what there was when the £20 million was first mentioned with the Reds simply hoping that interest fromother clubs will set up an auction.

However, it’s significant perhaps that no other club came in for him when he was available in the winter and, given his special relationship with David Moyes, the Irons would remain strong favourites to sign him

The future is really in Lingard’s hands anyway for with just a year left on his deal it’s for him to decide which club he wants to join and hopefully will insist that’s the Hammers.

The Sun claims the Red Devils weren’t interested in a permanent transfer in January.

According to Eurosport, the Hammers were hoping to include a £15m option to buy in the deal, in addition to the £1.5m loan fee.

But they claim that United turned their nose up at the offer, as club chiefs ‘knew’ that Lingard was capable of his current stunning form.

Lingard’s contract had been set to expire at the end of this season.

But the Red Devils triggered an option to extend it by a further year back in December.