West Ham favourites to sign attacker who scored 'stunning' goal at London Stadium in 2021

West Ham United are in pole position to clinch the signing of free agent Jesse Lingard, according to the Daily Mail‘s Simon Jones. 

The 29-year-old is currently without a club after leaving Manchester United at the end of his contract. He memorably spent the second half of the 2020/21 season on loan at the London Stadium, playing 16 games in which he scored nine goals and provided five assists.

It looks like he may become the Hammers’ third signing of the summer after centre-back Nayef Aguerd joined from Rennes and goalkeeper Alphonse Areola made his loan move permanent.

Even though the Irons won’t have to fork out a transfer fee, it’s still fair to say Lingard won’t come cheap, with Football Insider claiming that he has asked for a wage of £150,000 per week.

The Daily Mail reported that Lingard is ‘ready’ to sign for West Ham and snub his other suitors, a list which also includes Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.

The midfielder ‘enjoyed’ his previous stint at the London Stadium and will be hoping to pick up where he left off if he does return to the Stratford venue.

It would actually have been best for all parties had Lingard signed for West Ham last summer.

Manchester United would actually have banked a transfer fee for a player who is valued at £16.2m by Transfermarkt, rather than losing him for nothing this year, while the Hammers would have got their hands on a player who, as mentioned early, previously thrived in David Moyes’ side.

The 29-year-old ultimately spent much of the 2021/22 season watching on from the sidelines – indeed, he only played 355 top-flight minutes between August and May.

He bagged just two goals, one of which was ironically a late winner away to West Ham in September 2021. Fatefully, that went a