Jesse Lingard issues come-and-get-me plea to Jose Mourinho | OneFootball

Jesse Lingard is considering his Manchester United future after being ‘frozen out’ of the team’s opening Premier League tie against Crystal Palace.

Th 27-year-old has struggled to find consistency and form over the past two seasons and has not been a regular starter in the first team since Bruno Fernandes’ arrival from Sporting Lisbon in January.

And, according to The Telegraph, Lingard was ‘surprised by his omission from the Manchester United squad on Saturday as speculation about his future continues.’

The outlet says that the England international’s absence from the matchday squad was all the more telling due to the fact that he was ‘one of the few who completed a full pre-season’ in a situation where ‘players were lacking match fitness because of a truncated pre-season.’ ‘Lingard trained throughout a short holiday in Greece during the break and played in United’s only pre-season friendly last week, against Aston Villa,’ reporter Paul Hirst continues. ‘The attacking midfielder was therefore surprised to not even make the bench for Saturday’s match at Old Trafford in which several players looked leggy. ‘Solskjaer could recall Lingard for today’s Carabao Cup tie away to Luton Town, but the academy graduate is facing a dilemma about his long-term future at United. ‘Lingard is loath to leave the club he joined at the age of seven, but he wants regular first-team football.’ The report then went on to issue what would appear to be a ‘come and get me’ plea from the Wirral-born player. ‘Lingard would be willing to talk to Tottenham Hotspur about a move if José Mourinho, his former manager at United, made a move to sign him,’ Hirst concluded. Newspaper reports are fuelled by information from various sources in football and it seems almost certain in this case that it is Lingard’s people who fed the information to Hirst. As such, it is a sad reflection of the player’s recent performances that he needs to drum up interest by leaking stories such as this to the press.