Paul Merson has delivered a brutal message to Jesse Lingard insisting there is "no point hanging around" and told the England international to force his way out of Manchester United.
The 29-year-old's camp have become incensed by the handling of his situation at Old Trafford amid interest from Newcastle United and West Ham.
Time is running out with the January transfer window set to close on Monday at 11pm.
And Merson believes Lingard's future is now in his hands, writing in his Daily Star column: "Jesse Lingard needs to force his way out of Manchester United in this transfer window.
"Does he want to play football or not? He's not a kid anymore. If he waits and tries to move on a free in the summer, he'll probably get offered more money.
"But your career soon disappears. If he sits on the bench at Old Trafford for the rest of the season, people are going to start to forget about him and he's wasting what time he has left.
"He had an unbelievable chance to sign for West Ham and he should have taken it," he continued. "Maybe he thought he could do better.
"Maybe he really thought he could go back to United and he'd get in that team every week. But even a blind man could see that was never going to happen."
The former Arsenal midfielder added: "He knows now it's not going to happen for him at United, surely. He made a mistake going back there and there is no point hanging around there anymore.
"I like him. I think he's a good player. But he should have gone to West Ham when he had the chance.
"He's probably thinking he can't go to Newcastle in case he ends up playing in the Championship. But he needs to be playing football."
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