Manchester United’s refusal to let Jesse Lingard leave bad for both player and manager

His 8½ year reign as Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman and 17-year association with the club came to an end at midnight on Monday, when Richard Arnold was formally handed the reins.

Although social media is not sometimes the best way to gauge fan sentiment, there were few tears shed for Woodward by United supporters on Twitter.

“Best deadline day we’ve had in years,” one fan posted.

Another reminded his followers of the time that supporters clubbed together for a banner to be flown over Turf Moor when United were playing Burnley in 2018.

The banner read: “Ed Woodward: A specialist in failure.”

Woodward’s reign was not a complete failure — he did bring in many multimillion pound commercial contracts — but the lack of success on the pitch and poor player acquisition scarred his reign.

One of the biggest problems with the Woodward era was the club’s inability to move on players whom the manager did not want or who wanted to leave themselves.

In previous windows, unhappy fringe players such as Donny van de Beek, Anthony Martial, Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo, Sergio Romero and Alexis Sánchez — to name a few — were kept at the club when United should have cut their losses.

The club held on to them however, mainly because they could not find a suitor willing to match the huge wages that United pay their players.

In this transfer window, there was a change of tack from United, thanks to the influence of Ralf Rangnick.

The interim manager had told any unhappy player that he could leave. He had made a similar statement in a press conference in December.

“If a player does not want to play for a club like Manchester United medium or long term, I don’t think it makes sense to convince him to change his mind,” he said.

It was a sensible policy, one that previous United managers should have adopted years ago. After all, what is the point in having a miserable player around the place?

Martial, the sulky French forward, was ushered out of the door to Seville on loan. Van de Beek, who had made 19 starts in 18 months, was shipped off to Everton until the end of the season Amad Diallo, the talented 19-year-old forward, was loaned to Rangers, where he will gain valuable first-team experience.

In terms of outgoings at least, it looked as if it was going to be a good window for United, However, the one player that wanted and needed to leave Old Trafford was denied his move.

Jesse Lingard should have been allowed to join Newcastle United. Even with the suspension of Mason Greenwood, Rangnick had a first-team squad of 27 players to choose from.

Admittedly, four of those squad members are goalkeepers, but United still had enough cover to have let the 29-year-old England international go.

To cover the front three positions, United have: Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Anthony Elanga and Juan Mata. Paul Pogba has played some of his best football for United on the left wing and United have Hannibal Mejbri, the exciting 19-year-old Tunisian midfielder coming through the ranks too.

It seemed counter-productive to keep Lingard from both a financial and personal point of view. Lingard will no doubt look at the moves made by Van de Beek, Martial and Dele Alli, for example, and feel jealous.

On two occasions over the past week, Rangnick has told Lingard that he would be happy for him to leave and that he was not in United’s plans for next season.

The German even told a fan as much outside Old Trafford. The footage of this exchange was recorded and posted online. It is fair to say that it did not go down well with Lingard or his representatives.

The attacking midfielder wanted to leave, but the United board would not let him go unless they received a £2.5 million loan fee and a “survival bonus” of £12.5 million if Newcastle avoided relegation. They also wanted Newcastle to pay his £100,000-per-week wages for the rest of the season.

Even for a club with Newcastle’s resources, it seemed as if United were asking for too much, particularly when the player in question has only started two games this season and is out of contract on July 1.

Despite another attempt to drive the price down on deadline day, United’s board stood firm.

Now, as a result, Rangnick has an unhappy player on his hands. This is the kind of situation that he wanted to avoid when he said last month that he would not stand in a player’s way if they asked to go.

Sources close to Lingard indicated that the player was deeply unhappy on Monday evening. They dismissed claims from United officials that the club had planned to keep Lingard all along.

One source said that the club felt Lingard could be an important player for the rest of the season, but if that is the case, why did Rangnick give the green light to his exit, even after Greenwood was suspended after allegations of rape and assault?

In the 22 Premier League matches that United have contested this season, Lingard has played 88 minutes. He has, in that time, scored twice.

Maybe after a few injuries or Covid cases, he will get to play a few games, but he will get nowhere near as many minutes as he would had he been allowed to join Newcastle.

Rangnick is an intelligent man, that is why he wanted to clear out any unhappy fringe players. Now he has a challenge on his hands to motivate a player who is struggling to come to terms with the fact that he is being coached by a manager who has told him on two occasions that he is not in his plans.

As one source close to Lingard put it last week: “It’s pointless Jesse going into work now knowing that he isn’t going to feature.”

– The Times