Gareth Southgate was on hand to recommend Jesse Lingard’s services to potential suitors as Man Utd attempted to send him out on loan in January, according to reports.
Lingard ended up joining West Ham on a loan deal until the end of the season with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seeing it as the best course of action.
The winger has been in sensational form so far for the Hammers, bagging four goals in the Premier League and providing an assist for his new team-mates.
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The 28-year-old’s career has stagnated in recent seasons due to injury and loss of form with Lingard only starting 28 Premier League matches for Man Utd over the past two seasons, scoring just five goals.
But his recent form for West Ham has increased his prospects of place in Southgate’s England squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers and the Euros in the summer.
The Man Utd loanee has 24 caps for the Three Lions already with his last goal for England coming against Croatia at Wembley in November 2018, while his last cap was against Switzerland in June 2019.
And The Athletic says Southgate has ‘huge admiration’ for Lingard and had ‘a lengthy chat’ with the winger over why he was left out of the European Championship qualifiers back in October 2019.
Southgate is such a fan that ‘the England manager was happy to provide a glowing reference for potential suitors when Manchester United were willing to let him leave on loan in January.’
West Ham were already doing well in the Premier League this season but the introduction of Lingard from Man Utd has helped push them towards the top four.
And David Moyes recently admitted that he wanted Lingard to stay after his loan deal ends in the summer and there are rumours Solskjaer could be ready to sell.
“I hope we’re going to be in a position to attract many players in the future, because of our league position, because we’re a club with stature, we’re in London, we have a 60,000-plus stadium which will be full every week. I think all those things go in our favour,” Moyes said.
“Jesse wanted to come here, right from the start. When I was talking to him he wanted to come to West Ham. He saw it as a really good place for him. I think he’ll have seen what we’re trying to do.
“He’s joined a good group of players as well. We’ve got international players and I’m hoping we can add to that in the coming transfer window. The job is to try to add to that.
“But I would hope Jesse sees this as a good place if it’s possible to be done, and if we think that we want to do it at the end of the season.”
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