Former Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard has been slammed for his accusations about the club.
Lingard left United for Nottingham Forest over the summer, having spent more than 20 years on the books of the Old Trafford club. The 30-year-old was seen sharing a moment with former colleagues Marcus Rashford and David de Gea after his team was soundly beaten by a Rashford-inspired United team earlier this week.
The England international spent half a season on loan with West Ham in 2020-21, returning to United only to find minutes hard to come by. That prompted him to hit out at former United bosses Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, but former Red Devils defender Paul Parker has fired back at Lingard.
“Jesse Lingard wasn't disrespected at all in Man United and for him to say that is totally wrong," Parker told Bonuscode Bets. "He is a local boy and now he is disrespecting the club instead of looking himself in the mirror.
"Jesse wasn't good enough to play for Man United and he needs to acknowledge that instead of coming with accusations about the club,” Parker added. "And honestly, to talk about politics as the reasons why he was a failure is rubbish.
"You should never use that sentence when talking about football and if he really wants to talk politics he should go and talk to Gary Neville. One day he will hopefully be mature enough to see that he disrespected the club by putting this in the newspaper and then should apologise to the club and the fans.”
Was Lingard hard done by at Man Utd? Have your say in the comments section
Lingard played more than 200 times for Man Utd after making his debut under Louis van Gaal in 2014. He won the last of his 32 England caps while on the club's books, scoring twice against Andorra in September 2021, but a lack of game time last season under Solskjaer and Rangnick - just two starts in the league and two in other competitions - saw his World Cup dreams all but ended before his move to Forest.
“I don’t know why I wasn’t playing. I don’t know what the problem was, whether it was politics or whatever,” Lingard told the Telegraph. “I still haven’t got an answer to this day. "I didn’t even ask. I’d rather that someone out of respect for me being there that long told me ‘this is why you’re not playing’, but I never got that.
“It was false promises. I was training hard and I was sharp, I was ready to play them games. When you’re working hard in training and don’t play at the end of it, it’s very frustrating."
