Former Premier League defender Danny Mills has backed West Ham to sign Jesse Lingard in January for as little as £5million in January.
This comes after the Hammers failed in an effort to sign the 28-year-old during the summer, leading to a prolonged stay at Manchester United.
Despite a lack of involvement at club level, Lingard scored twice for England as the Three Lions cruised past Andorra on Sunday evening.
Speaking to Football Insider, Mills has claimed that the Irons could still land the attacking midfielder in the near future.
I feel a bit for him (Lingard) because he’s done very, very well. He probably deserves better. It’s that tricky predicament now where he has a year left. He’s running out of contract time. Will Manchester United want to let him go out on loan at that stage? Unlikely, I would suggest. Maybe he won’t want to go out on loan at that stage either for fear of picking up an injury. Unless he signs a pre-contract with somebody and goes abroad. That would be another way to do it. He’s now looking at a two, three-year deal at best now. He did brilliantly at West Ham, he put himself back in the England squad. Somebody will take a gamble on him come the end of the season. It’s just about whether they will take a gamble and take him if Man United don’t want to keep him. They may just accept £5million in the January transfer window to get it done and dusted. That’s more realistic.
Whilst on loan in east London last season the 31 times capped ace scored nine and assisted five other goals in just 16 Premier League appearances.
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Valued at £19.8million and in the final 12 months of a deal at Old Trafford (Transfermarkt), there certainly could be a chance of landing a bargain in January.
Albeit caveated by the deadline day arrival of Nikola Vlasic, Irons’ boss David Moyes will no doubt be disappointed not to have missed out on bringing Lingard back to the London Stadium.
As the rigours of the Europa League and a full domestic campaign take hold later in the campaign, Moyes’ squad will be tested to the maximum.
Perhaps another January signing beckons for the star of last season.
