Pundits and fans of rival clubs need to make their minds up.
Is it great to have Nottingham Forest back in the Premier League or are they getting above their station by actually trying to stay there? After the Reds beat Huddersfield they were briefly everyone's second club again, unless you're a Huddersfield fan. Now they have spent heavily to try and make sure their 23-year exile doesn't last one season and suddenly they're just too ambitious for some.
West Ham fans - and a seemingly constantly outraged Richard Keys - can't fathom why Jesse Lingard would reject them as some talkSPORT pundits saying he's throwing his career away. What do people want Forest to do? A year ago Jamie O'Hara called Norwich an embarrassment to the league and said it should be cut to 18 teams as they spent relatively little after promotion.
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Now Evangelos Marinakis is spending big with about £70million put in so far and more to come as he looks to make sure they are not another Norwich, or Watford. Are Forest not meant to go for it? Anyone who followed them at all last season might have noticed they lost five of their better players when their loans expired, while Brice Samba inadvertently sealed his own move away when gripes over his contract became public.
The Reds were not taking a particularly major slice of the news agenda until the signing of Lingard this week, a deal which seemed to have outraged plenty of people for reasons that make little sense.
Simon Jordan accused Lingard of having an "unhealthy obsession" with TikTok and for making his move all about finances. His talkSPORT colleague Alex Crook said of his summer social media feed: "I don't think his conduct is befitting of a footballer who is nearly 30 years of age".
talkSPORT have tweeted around 10 separate video clips of pundits and presenters discussing the move, some in support, some against. People will say it's a weird obsession but it's smart on their part. Clearly Lingard riles up their listeners and leads to clicks.
The deeper question is why and what is befitting of a footballer who is nearly 30 of age? To my knowledge, Lingard has never been arrested or been accused of anything particularly immoral. He's not going on benders or gambling or all his wages.
If he wants to make TikTok videos then what is the problem? It is only an issue if that or his business interests distract from his primary career of being very well paid by Nottingham Forest. Of course he is making an obscene amount of money at a time when families are struggling to pay their bills, but that is not his fault. The market dictates that a free agent who was an England regular not so long ago can command upwards of £100,000 a week.
No one moans in the media here about Gareth Bale's golfing and few commented when Ben Foster focussed on his YouTube vlog to the point it annoyed Watford's top brass. In fact, Jordan described Foster's channel as 'creative, out of the box thinking' in November 2020. The JLingz brand might not be for everyone. I won't be buying a branded cap, but it could make him a lot of money from those who do. Similarly, Forest will be quids in from shirt sales.
For Forest this could be a great deal given it is only for one year initially. There is a risk they lose him in 12 months if he repeats the form of his loan at West Ham, but equally they could have been saddled with his wages in the Championship if he flops and they go down.
If Lingard scores 10 goals and chips in with assists then there is a much better chance they stay up and then it is a case of mission accomplished all round. As Jeff Stelling said to Rory Jennings of, you guessed it, talkSPORT, after particularly over the top rant where he said Lingard has waved the white on his whole career... "Why don’t we all just wait and see ? I hope he can reproduce the sort of form he showed at West Ham. If he doesn’t then people might be entitled to have a go but not before he has kicked a ball for Forest."
Easy on the rational thinking there Jeff.
Do you agree that Lingard has waved the white flag on his career? Have your say in the comments section below.
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