Where Would Lingard Fit In?

Obviously with the transfer window opened, the speculation thread mill has gone into overdrive with rumour versus counter rumour, none more so than the 'never ending story' of whether Manchester United's Jesse Lingard would return to West Ham on a permanent basis, following his incredibly successful loan spell during the second half of last season.

Lingard HAS been badly let down by his parent club on his return to Old Trafford, promises of more playing time were initially dashed by Ole 'gonner' and then compounded by Ralf Rangnick as Lingard's plummet down the Manchester United pecking order has been perpetuated.

During his loan spell at the club players openly refered to Lingard as Moyes's pet, more clandestine names were given to him such as Moyes's love child, such was the esteem the Hammers manager held for the Manchester United midfielder. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Lingard would return to West Ham sooner rather than later, as a result Moyes decided on bringing Nikola Vlasic to the club at some considerable expense.

Moyes has integrated Vlasic into the team incredibly cautiously, but he now seems willing for the Croatian to step up to the plate in the absence of Said Benrahma who is off playing in the AFCON competition that is scheduled to run for SIX weeks.

Hammers need for a striker is like a scratched record, as is the need for a good left back as well as a decent centre back, the ONE area of the pitch that Hammers have cover in abundance is MIDFIELD, with Pablo Fornals, Alex Kral, Manuel Lanzini and now Nikola Vlasic ALL competing to fill two slots, so where would Jesse Lingard fit in?

Something would have to give in order to accommodate Jesse, however IF he arrived EARLY during the January window, playing him would only risk putting one nose out of joint instead of two, the problem being that one of those affected most by Lingard's selection would be Vlasic, who has just been 'brought to the boil' in a similar fashion as that was done to both Jarrod Bowen AND Said Benrama.

Of course it can be argued that ANY club with genuine top four or even top six aspirations, HAS to have a squad capable of playing on ALL fronts throughout the season and therefore signing Lingard would be a prudent bit of business that could pay for itself, if Hammers WERE able to gatecrash the top four! - Ed