Manchester United legend Roy Keane has insisted Jesse Lingard should have left the club last summer. The England international is currently in the spotlight after Ralf Rangnick claimed he’d asked for time off. The playmaker, who was wanted by Newcaste and West Ham during the January transfer window, then took issue with his manager’s comments.
Speaking earlier in the week, Rangnick said Lingard had asked for some time off after he failed to engineer a move away from Old Trafford.
“Victor Lindelof has been ill the whole week and is not training. So he will also miss tomorrow’s game,” he said.
“The same is true with Jesse [Lingard] – he asked me and the club if we could give him a couple of days off, just to clear up his mind.
“Eric Bailly came back yesterday.
“He has some problems, a swollen ankle, and will therefore not be a part of the squad tomorrow.”
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“He should’ve gone last summer. End of story,” Keane said cuttingly.
“He’s had his chance he went out and showed what he’s about. He’s a good player, went to West Ham hit the ground running having not played much football but people get bogged on players’ contract if they want to leave on a free, you have to play the games.
“He can complain all he wants, obviously it’s not ideal between the club and Jesse at the moment.
“Last summer was his opportunity he should’ve took it, if he had the chance and I’m sure he might say there wasn’t many offers on the table, but he had the opportunity last summer that was his chance because at the moment he’s just writing the season off and he can’t afford to do that if he has plans on getting back into the England setup.
“But having said that, there’s an important few months coming up for United, stranger things have happened if he can come back in he’s shown before that he’s got quality.”
Ian Wright also spoke out on Lingard, admitting it was a strange situation.
“A communication breakdown. When you’ve got a player saying he wants to play then the manager comes out and says he wants a break, now for me it just seems really strange for Jesse, someone who could hardly make the team but we saw how hard he worked himself, go to West Ham and do very well,” he said.
“He’s done very well for Man United, in the four finals since Sir Alex hasn’t been about he’s played in four and scored in three.
“Everything about him, he wants to do well for the club so I can’t understand why they come out and say that.
“He’s had a pile on from people saying he doesn’t want to play for the club, where’s the care of duty in that? I think it’s varying respects of what he wants to do, what he’s trying to do in respect of trying to leave the club, he wanted to get a loan move, whatever it is they denied him getting a loan move and in a world cup year, somebody who might do well and go the World Cup.
“There’s a lot of things that’s really have gone wrong if you look at both sides because he needs to play and I think he thought he was going to get a loan.”
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