'The understanding I get' - Journalist says WHUFC want 'baller'; Rice sent him message this week

Journalist Dean Jones has claimed that Jesse Lingard is somebody who West Ham United want back at the club after previously spending time on loan last season.

There were talks in January over a move back to West Ham for Lingard, who spent the second half of the 2020/21 season on loan with the east London club, but Manchester United opted to keep him, despite offering him just two starts in the Premier League in the most recent campaign.

Lingard ended up scoring nine goals and assisting five times in 16 appearances in the top flight during his spell at the London Stadium, but rather than opting to sign a permanent deal there, he decided to go back to Manchester and fight for his place in the side.

With the reports that West Ham showed interest in Lingard in January, Jones claimed to GiveMeSport that they remain keen to bring him back to the club in the summer transfer window.

He said: “The understanding I get from it is that West Ham don’t really feel they could have done any more at this point. They’ve had him on loan, it’s gone really well. He likes all of the squad members. He’s seen that they’ve been successful on the pitch, and now they want him back.”

TIF Thoughts on Jones’ comments…

Interestingly, it appears as if Lingard and Declan Rice are still good friends, as the latter sent a message to the former West Ham star on Instagram earlier this week.

Lingard, who was described as a ‘baller’ by Angel Gomes, was at the forefront of the stats while at West Ham, even having only spent a few months at the club. He had the highest average player rating (7.19), the second-highest amount of goal contributions (14) and the third-most key passes per game (1.1), as per SofaScore.

Moyes will likely be keen to get Lingard back