I swear some people have short term memories. Guy scores twice against Andorra and suddenly he's deemed to be good enough..
He's had years to prove his worth. He was even a starter for a decent amount of time but time and time again he's not up to the standards the club should be setting.
The occasional pisstake against Andorran semi pros and turning out for West Ham is his level.
If he were earning much less than what we've been stupid enough to pay him, we'd have been able to find him another club.
Friend, I remember another player who was deemed unfit for service, and returned to his club to become a very good player for them. Victor Moses, who curiously also went on loan to West Ham, returned to Chelsea and managed to become a very important player for the Chelsea side of 2016 onwards. In his loan spell at West Ham Jesse Lingard not only found form, but managed to get voted Premier League Player of the month for April 2021. He didn't just play well, he outplayed
everyone.
Under our pre-season he's been one of the best players on the pitch during the games we've had, including scoring goals, creating changces for teammates and one particular strike that probably dented the crossbar. I know that you're going to use the opposition as an argument for why this is stupid to mention like some kind of gloryholechallenge you just set a new speedrecord at, but you can only play the opposition in front of you. By the metric of
If you work hard, you will earn your opportunities he's more than earned a shot at making his way back into the team.
Can he start a game was the he question OP stated, not if he can be a regular starter. Does Jesse start ahead of Bruno or Pogba? Of course not. That's how ridiculously high that bar is. Does that mean he can't be a useful player?
Knowledge is a good thing to have. Manchester United is a significantly better team than West Ham. With the right opposition or stage of game (Opponent chasing goals if they're under) Jesse can be an incredibly useful player. West Ham enjoy what Manchester United doesn't: Teams playing open. He's been good for West Ham because they're afforded more space than a team as top heavy as Manchster United. Jesse isn't the guy for low blocking opposition but he's certainly useful for situations where we can expect a lot of counter attacking.
You might want to know that Jesse Lingard earns £75,000 weekly. That's 4th lowest of all senior squad members. If you're salty that Jesse earns more money than you for being worse at everything than you, that's fine, I get it, you're great. But if you take into account that players are generally paid on a host of metrics that primarily boils down to where you sit in the hierarchy or where you are in your career, you find that Jesse earns the same wage as Phil Jones and Mason Greenwood. Jones and Lingard are senior players with 1 big contract left in their careers, this is their peak income in the Manchester United wage structure. It's also one of the smallest contracts in the senior squad structure.
On the surface, Jesse's contract is no problem for West Ham. They pay Michael Antonio the same wage as Jesse currently makes, at 31 years of age and a lesser overall contribution than what Jesse contributed at West Ham, the club was more than willing to match the contract.
Understandably, the "problem" with moving Jesse along, is that Jesse Lingard has a contract with Manchester United and is within his right to stay and try to earn his way into the team, an option he chose for himself. He rejected West Ham and chose Manchester United. Now, maybe that will ultimately prove to be the wrong career move, but for a player who's been open with mental and family struggles, it's hard not to root for a guy who's been working so hard and achieved so much over the last year, that you at least want to allow him the same opportunity as every other squad member in the club has:
The right to earn your opportunity to play.
In 1998, Manchester United wanted to sell another squad player surplus to requirements: Ole Gunnar Solskjær. The club had accepted an offer for £5.5million for Tottenham. Ole Gunnar Solskjær was 26 years old.
“The gaffer called me into his office and said: ‘I don’t really want to sell you because if you stay here you’ll play enough football,'” “That was enough for me. I didn’t want to go; my agent did. He said he had never met a person as stubborn as me. But I was right. I normally am!”
“The manager deserves the credit for all the success I have had. That was just one example of the kind of manager he is.
“There will be a lot of Sir Alex Ferguson I will take into management. He has transformed me into the professional I have been. He has drip fed things into me all the time.”
A stubborn manager keeps a player at the club because he believes he can make something of himself. History does enjoy repeating itself.
