Why Manchester United must offload Jesse Lingard to Porto

According to ESPN’s Manchester United correspondent Rob Dawson, Jesse Lingard is the subject of interest from FC Porto. It would only be a loan deal in case there are developments regarding a transfer.

Profile

Jesse Lingard is a 27-year-old English midfielder who plays for Manchester United. He started his youth career at United itself back in 2000. Over the next decade, he progressed through the various youth teams. In 2012, he was promoted to the senior side but was sent on loan during the same season to Leicester City.

Three more loan spells followed in the next two seasons, namely at Birmingham City, Brighton, and Derby County. It was not until 2015 that Lingard managed to make a place for himself in the squad. Under Jose Mourinho, he had his best spell as a Manchester United player.

However, he has been reduced to a squad option once Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over. Since then, he has found game time hard to come by and his form went for a toss. The academy graduate has made over 200 appearances for Manchester United, scoring 33 goals and 20 assists (source – Transfermarkt).

Lingard has been a regular for the England side but has fallen out of contention in recent times. He has played 24 games and scored 4 goals for the Three Lions.

Why Man United must offload Lingard to Porto

Manchester United might not have had the best of transfer windows but they did manage to beef up their forward line in some capacity. The likes of Edinson Cavani, Facundo Pellistri and Amad Diallo Traore were brought in to add more firepower (source – Manchester United website).

While Traore is set to arrive in January next year, Pellistri could be thrown into the first-team mix to provide options in the attack. Game time has been hard to come by for Lingard and with all these new forward players, his chances are lesser now.

The forward line is looking good at this point with the likes of Martial, Rashford, Greenwood and Cavani in the ranks. Even the attacking midfield has numbers in the form of Bruno Fernandes and new recruit Donny Van De Beek.

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Those are two of Lingard’s main playing areas. With so many quality players available and able backups also available, Lingard’s chances of being a squad player look grim too. So it’s in the best interests of the club to offload the academy graduate in case a suitable offer comes along.