Jesse Lingard has agreed with Cristiano Ronaldo’s scathing criticism of Manchester United by claiming the club are "miles" behind their rivals.
Lingard, 30, joined Nottingham Forest as a free agent in the summer after his deal at Old Trafford was allowed to expire – bringing an end to his 22-year stay at the club, whom he had joined as a seven-year-old.
Ronaldo completed a stunning move to Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr earlier this month and is expected to earn in the region of £173million per year. The deal comes after Ronaldo ended his relationship with United by mutual consent in November following a bombshell interview with Piers Morgan.
One of the factors that hastened Ronaldo’s exit was his overt criticism of United and the facilities available at the club. The Portuguese superstar did not believe the club had maintained the standards they had enjoyed when he previously played at Old Trafford, before leaving in 2009.
“Piers, to be honest, when I signed for Manchester United, I thought everything had changed because it’s 13 years since I change. I was in Real Madrid nine years and three in Juventus,” Ronaldo said in the interview that effectively ended his career at the top level..
“And when I arrived, I thought everything will be different, you know, the technology, the infrastructures and everything. But I was surprised, in a bad way, let’s say in that way… because I saw, everything was the same.”
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Lingard, who started just two Premier League matches last season for his boyhood club as he was continually overlooked for selection by boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his successor Ralf Rangnick, as he fell out of favour in the first-team squad, has agreed with Ronaldo’s analysis of United.
“They’re so behind on everything,” he told the Diary of a CEO podcast. “You see [Manchester] City’s facilities, Tottenham ’s facilities. People are miles ahead. Even the social [media] side of things.
“I went to them in 2017 about YouTube and doing content – I just wanted them to get up to date with everything and the new things that are happening. You have to be relevant and stay relevant.”
Lingard added that one of the most difficult aspects of analysing United was that the players did not know who was in charge of the club. His dig at the club was reflective of the unpopularity of United’s Glazer ownership and the discontent their stewardship has generated.
“We don’t know [who’s calling the shots],” Lingard revealed. “And of course now they [owners the Glazers] want to sell the club. We were just behind on a lot of things. Players didn’t really take a view.
“You want the modern things, you want the things that are popping off at the time, but we don’t know who calls the shots on the training ground and that sort of thing. Flash training ground, best facilities, no-one talking in the press about the team.”
Lingard began his career by heading out on loan to Leicester, Birmingham, Derby and Brighton. He would become a more established first team member under Louis van Gaal - scoring the winner in the 2016 FA Cup final at Wembley.
Lingard also scored goals in the Carabao Cup final success of 2017 and the Community Shield win over Leicester City a matter of months earlier. As a teenager he was part of the famous FA Youth Cup side that saw off Sheffield United - playing alongside the likes of Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison.
