Lingard snubs Hammers to join Forest for £10m payday
Greek owner adds Lingard to £70m spree in bid to stay in the big league
JESSE LINGARD has signed a £200,000-a-week deal to join newly promoted Nottingham Forest in one of the shock moves of this summer window. The england international, who left Manchester United at the end of his contract, rejected West ham to sign for Forest and could make his debut in the friendly against Union Berlin tomorrow. lingard is thought to have signed an initial 12-month deal, which will earn him £10million. The 29-year-old is Forest’s 10th summer signing and hopes to force his way into Gareth southgate’s squad for the World cup later this year. Miltiadis Marinakis, the son of owner evangelos, yesterday tweeted a picture of himself and lingard posing with a Forest shirt, and the player tweeted: ‘ready for my new chapter. can’t wait to get going.’ The hammers were considering whether to return with an improved offer for lingard, with boss David Moyes a huge fan of the player, who also had interest from the United states and the Middle east. Forest had already spent more than £70m on new players, as well as acquiring goalkeeper Dean henderson on loan from Manchester United, but lingard has become their statement signing. he made 165 top-flight appearances during spells with United and West ham, and has 32 caps for england.
Marinakis snr has bankrolled a huge summer spree to try to establish Forest in the top flight and they are thought to have shown interest in Watford striker emmanuel Dennis and
Maxwel cornet of Burnley.
IF there were any doubts about Nottingham Forest’s ambition on their return to the Premier League, the package worth nearly £200,000 a week handed to Jesse Lingard should end them instantly.
Forest had already caught the eye by spending more than £70million on nine new players, but signing Lingard takes their summer business to a completely different level. Where other promoted clubs spend little and bank the television money, Forest have pushed the boat out.
this is a player who West ham — the closest challengers to the big six last season — were prepared to pay £150,000 a week to join them, and who still hopes to force his way into england’s World Cup squad. Owner evangelos Marinakis was determined to make a statement after Forest regained their top-flight status for the first time this century. By capturing a forward who has spent most of his career at Manchester United, he has certainly achieved that.
Within moments of announcing the signing, Forest were milking it on social media, devoting the banner on their twitter page to an image of Lingard in his new colours. the 29-year- old also released a typically flamboyant video on his own social media channels to mark the occasion.
this changes the expectation around Forest at a stroke. they already had the highest net spend of any Premier League club this summer but none of those signings was a household name.
having made this commitment, relegation is not an option. the pressure on boss Steve Cooper, who did a remarkable job to lead the club out of the Championship, just cranked up a few notches. Lingard could make his first appearance in tomorrow’s friendly at Union Berlin and has been earmarked for a role just behind the forwards in Cooper’s preferred 3-4-1-2 formation.
the driving force behind this deal, and the spending that may still follow, has been Marinakis. the Greek shipping magnate, who also owns Olympiakos, has been in control at the City Ground since 2017 but is now really flexing his muscles.
Marinakis has faced controversy in the past. he was implicated in a 2015 investigation into match-fixing in him homeland, but, along with 27 others, was acquitted of all charges in January last year. he has faced no action over allegedly being involved in the bombing of a referee’s bakery. he has always denied any wrongdoing.
he has regular contact with Cooper who was happy to add Premier League experience to his squad, and this summer’s transfer campaign has been no scattergun spree.
extensive background checks are conducted on potential new signings and Forest always had two recruitment plans: one for the Premier League, one for the Championship.
Defenders Moussa Niakhate and Giulian Biancone and forward taiwo Awoniyi were studied closely before Forest made their move. Goalkeeper Dean henderson — on loan from Manchester United — and Neco Williams, bought for £18million from Liverpool, appear shrewd signings.
Midfielder Lewis O’Brien and wing-back harry toffolo were key members of the huddersfield team Forest defeated in the play- off final, and Omar richards, who will miss the start of the season, has joined from Bayern Munich. they have also hung on to homegrown jewel Brennan Johnson, who has signed an improved deal.
Yet the picture is not entirely rosy. Cooper relied a great deal last season on four loan players: Djed Spence, James Garner, Philip Zinckernagel and Keinan Davis. Spence has signed for tottenham, Garner and Davis have returned to Manchester United and Aston Villa respectively, and Zinckernagel was sold to Olympiakos by parent club Watford. In fairness, Lingard should be a significant upgrade on the Dane.
the recent experiences of Fulham and Aston Villa also represent a warning. In 2018-19, Fulham spent £ 105m on 10 players and were relegated. the following season, Villa splashed £143.5m on 14 and stayed up only on the final day of the season, thanks to a postlockdown run of eight points from their last four games.
With so many new faces, dressing-room unity is difficult to forge and can fracture after a run of early defeats.
In Cooper, however, Forest have one of the brightest managers in the game. One of the former Swansea boss’s first acts after taking over last September, when n Forest were bottom of the Championship with a single point, was to invite members of Brian Clough’s 1979 and 1980 european Cup-winning squads to watch training. the message to his players and the club was simple: embrace the history, don’t fear it.
‘he’s very professional and very classy,’ said Garry Birtles, who played in both campaigns, setting up the only goal for John robertson in the 1980 final against hamburg. ‘(Fellow Forest legend) John McGovern and I went to meet him early in his regime and from watching the training sessions, you could see what an impressive coach he is.
‘he is not afraid of what has happened in the past, which I think certain managers have been. he wants to take Nottingham Forest to the next stage.’