Jesse Lingard says he was left angered by a conversation between himself and Manchester United chief John Murtough regarding a loan exit last January.
The 30-year-old, who left Old Trafford in the summer, had requested to be loaned out to Newcastle last January after being offered little game time from Ralf Rangnick. The Reds denied him that request, with Lingard inferring it was on the grounds of ensuring the squad had enough numbers to see out the rest of the season.
Lingard had spent six months on loan at West Ham during the second half of the 2020/21 season and admitted he felt disappointed to have not stayed on before missing out on Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the delayed Euro 2020.
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United wanted to keep him at the club for the final year of his contract, but Lingard had pushed for a loan exit in the following January after making just 12 appearances before the turn of the new year, which included only two starts.
Lingard says Newcastle had entered discussions regarding a loan switch as a result, but Murtough called Lingard to tell him that an exit was off the table.
Speaking on The Diary Of A CEO podcast, Lingard said: “I wanted to go on loan in January [2022] because I wasn’t playing again so Newcastle was on the cards in January. Deal was done and everything and obviously United’s squad wasn’t big enough.
“They let a couple of players go out on loan and then when it came to me, John Murtough rang me and was like ‘you’re not going on loan’. And I was like, he’s [another player] gone on loan, he’s gone on loan - let me just go and enjoy my football.
“I’m not playing anyway so just let me go on loan and play football. He was like ‘what do you want, days off?’ and I was like ‘no, I just want to go and play football’. So they stopped the loan so I was p*****.”
Lingard added: “And then when he said I wanted two days off and that, I messaged him and was like ‘you know what, I’m going to take two days off now - just because you said that’.
“Then they put out ‘Jesse’s asked for two days off’ in the media - what? Went on Twitter straight away, ‘no I didn’t ask for two days off’ - I just put it out there, the facts.”
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