West Ham first-team coach Stuart Pearce has said that attacking midfielder Jesse Lingard is ‘too good’ to play a bit-part role.
This comes after reports claimed that the 28-year-old had rejected a new deal to stay at Old Trafford beyond the year left on his current contract.
Lingard opted to stay and fight for a place in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plans despite strong interest from the London Stadium in making a stellar loan move a permanent switch.
Speaking to talkSPORT, Pearce claimed that the England man is in control of his own destiny.
He has missed the opportunity to leave United in this transfer window. He can reassess his situation come January once again and decide whether there is an opportunity to move clubs or whatever. He holds the cards. The most important thing for him at the moment is his football. He is playing the odd game for United and playing extremely well for England. Those performances for England might just help get him in the United side. He is too good a player to be sat on the outside of it not playing to be honest. He is at an age where he needs to be playing now.
So far this season Lingard has played just four minutes of Premier League football during a brief substitute performance against Southampton.
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Valued at £19.8million and in the final 12 months of a contract in Manchester (Transfermarkt), the Irons could land themselves a bargain over the course of next year.
Perhaps available for cheap in January, or on a free ahead of next term, West Ham may well be the benefactors from refusing to acquiesce to some lofty demands this summer.
Whether or not Pearce and indeed David Moyes still see the England man as a priority following the arrival of Nikola Vlasic however is another matter altogether.
