Jesse Lingard: The time is right for FA Cup final hero to leave Man Utd

Jesse Lingard is still under contract at Manchester United until the summer of 2022, but he will finish this season on loan at West Ham and it is difficult to envisage him ever playing for his boyhood club again as he reaches a critical career crossroad.

Although his longer term future won’t be fully ironed out until the summer – the club triggered a contract extension last month in order to preserve a transfer value rather – Lingard will bid farewell to United more than 20 years since he first joined the youth ranks.

Lingard grew up a United fan and had the opportunity to first play for the club he loves at the age of seven. He progressed through the ranks and was part of the team that won the FA Youth Cup in 2011 alongside Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison, United’s last success in the historic competition.

The player began being involved with the first-team soon after and was later chosen by new manager David Moyes for the pre-season tour of 2013, during which he scored four goals. It was actually Lingard who scored United’s first goal after Sir Alex Ferguson retired, doing so in a tour game against an A-League All-Stars XI in Australia.

Loans with Leicester, Birmingham and Brighton in the Championship between 2012 and 2014 came before Lingard got his official debut at United, chosen as a surprise starter at right wing-back by Louis van Gaal on the opening day of the 2014/15 Premier League campaign.

Sadly, his afternoon lasted only 24 minutes because of injury and Lingard was sent out on loan again, this time to Derby, when he regained fitness a few months later.

By the age of 22, most players at a big club might wonder if their chance to make it there is ever going to come. Two months before he turned 23, Lingard’s finally did. Van Gaal turned to him in October 2015 and he played in the Premier League and Champions League in a matter of days.

He got his first United assist in the Champions League against CSKA Moscow in early November and then scored his first official goal in the Premier League against West Brom. Following a short spell out of favour, Lingard netted against Newcastle on his return in January and became a permanent fixture from that moment on, cementing it with further strikes against Stoke and Chelsea.

Lingard played in every round of the FA Cup that season, starting five of United’s seven games. He was on the bench for the final at Wembley, but his defining career moment, coming on to score a volleyed winner in extra-time, was like a childhood fantasy come to life.

If for nothing else, Lingard deserves his place in United history for that feat alone. Aside from the personal glory, it secured the club’s first trophy in the post-Ferguson era, a huge hurdle to clear, and equalled the record at that time for most FA Cup wins in the competition’s history.

Lingard remained in the squad after Jose Mourinho took over in 2016, despite concerns the Portuguese might dispense with younger players like he and Marcus Rashford, and enjoyed the best season of his career to date in 2017/18 when he managed 20 goals and assists in all competitions. As many as 14 of those were in the Premier League as United finished second behind Manchester City with 81 points, their highest since the days of Fergie, and he played a particularly decisive role from late November to early January when he scored seven times in a run of nine games.

Included in that purple patch was a brace in a famous away win against Arsenal, which is right up there alongside his FA Cup final winner as one of his best moments for United.

But Lingard’s form mirrored United’s. He was poor like the rest of the team at the beginning of 2018/19 and despite another December purple patch, which included another goal against Arsenal and the final goal of the Mourinho era against Liverpool, he has never recaptured his form.

As a bit-part player in 2019/20, Lingard failed to score or assist a single Premier League game before the season hiatus in March. With Bruno Fernandes arriving and giving United fresh life in a new direction, the chances he was getting, largely from the bench, dried up altogether and he barely featured during ‘Project Restart’. His cameo in the crucial final game of the season and the late strike that sealed the 2-0 win was his first goal in the Premier League since December 2018.

A developing United side, carried at times by Fernandes but now also underpinned by a revived Paul Pogba and the vibrancy of a young and hungry front three, has moved on without Lingard. His recent appearance against Watford in the FA Cup was his first since coming off the bench in the EFL Cup in September and he hasn’t played in the Premier League at all in 2020/21.

Therein lies the problem for Lingard. He played 40 or more games a season for United in four of the previous five years, popped up with semi-regular and often vital goals, and played his way into the England squad at this best, but he was still never more than a rotational squad player.

Even at his very best in 2017/18, Lingard only started 20 Premier League games of 33 appearances. He has the ability to make an impact here and there, but successive United managers have concluded he isn’t good enough to be a regular starter and that has only been further highlighted by the fact that his appearances have decreased as the squad as a whole has continued to improve.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is believed to have wanted to keep Lingard around as an emergency back-up to ensure the squad is not spread too thin as United compete in three competitions this month and beyond. But that is not the role of a player reported to be on a six-figure weekly salary or of someone at the age of 28, who would expect to be involved regularly at this stage of his career.

He should now be at his peak so it is not surprising that Lingard would want to be playing, even if that means leaving his boyhood club, initially on loan, but permanently before too long.

He won’t be remembered as an all-time great, but this is still an individual who has played over 200 games for United and has been with the club most of his life. He wasn’t cut out for the highest level but deserves respect for his service nonetheless and every United fan should wish Lingard well.

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