LINGARD’S LONDON REFRESHER EXPOSES ROTTEN LOAN SYSTEM
BOTH clubs have serious ambitions to finish in a Champions League position, but at least we now know what Manchester United really think of West Ham.
It’s a good place to send your waifs and strays for a bit of rehabilitation.
Something like: It’s very commendable that you are within a few points of us but we’ve got this England player who needs a few games, needs perking up, so you can have him for a bit. Here you go.
Keep him fit, see if you can get his chin up and pop him back to us in the summer – plus a few quid in rental charges, of course.
Oh, and in case he actually is still any good, he can’t play against us in March. Thanks.
Now, it might be that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is willing to sanction Jesse Lingard’s loan move because he believes David Moyes is wrong and that Lingard will NOT improve West Ham. Otherwise, why would you give help to a serious rival in mid-season?
Or is it that Solskjaer and the Old Trafford executives do not really consider the Hammers a serious rival?
But if Lingard can help West Ham nick the odd point against teams Solskjaer might truly rate as fellow title contenders, then that is a bonus.
After all, Lingard can play against Leicester in April and Manchester City next month, but not Manchester United.
Either way, it is another example of why the Premier League loan system is so fundamentally rotten.
Here is a scenario.
What if United and West
Ham are vying for fourth place on the last day of the season? Not out of the question.
Does Lingard play for West Ham then on May 23 at home to Southampton while United travel to Molineux to take on Wolves?
What if he has a stinker, makes a costly mistake – maybe has a sitter in the last minute but blazes over – and gifts his REAL owners a place in the Champions League at the expense of the club that has only leased him?
Who wouldn’t think that looked completely wrong?
But Lingard would simply head back to Old Trafford and try and get a place in Solskjaer’s team for the final season of his contract.
Another possibility is Lingard plays well for West Ham over the next few months, and someone will stump up a few quid for him this summer.
In other words, United could be using West Ham to put their player in the shop window.
That is not how it is, argues Solskjaer, who said: “We want Jesse to come back here revitalised and having shown how good a player he is… shown he is a United player through and through.”
Well, until someone has the backbone to actually buy Lingard, he IS a Manchester United player through and through.
“JLingz is a Hammer,” announced the London club. No. He. Is. Not. You have borrowed him. He is there to keep his market value up and he is there for rehab.
JLingz is a Manchester United player.
APPLES AND PEARS, SON