West Ham have been dealt a blow in their bid to sign Jesse Lingard this month, with Manchester United refusing to allow him to join a top-four rival.
David Moyes had been keen to bring Lingard back to the London Stadium following his stellar loan spell last season, while Spurs have been tracking him since Jose Mourinho’s time as manager and lodged a bid for the 29-year-old last summer.
Lingard rejected a permanent move to West Ham in the summer and decided to fight for a place at Old Trafford.
He is yet to start a Premier League game under either Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Ralf Rangnick, however, and has ended talks over a new deal — meaning he will be a free agent in the summer.
Newcastle have now made an approach to take Lingard on loan for the rest of the season. Eddie Howe was keen to sign the attacking midfielder on a permanent deal but the United academy graduate wanted to keep his options open in the summer.
Manchester United are happy to do a deal with relegation-threatened Newcastle, though they will not strengthen a top-four rival.
West Ham visit Old Trafford for a Premier League clash on Saturday. The Hammers sit fourth and hold a two-point advantage over their rivals, who sit sixth but have two games in hand.
Moyes was in the stands at Brentford for his next opponents’ 3-1 win in midweek and will have been encouraged by the chances created by the hosts, who dominated Manchester United for almost an hour before conceding.
The Hammers have had a full week to prepare for tomorrow’s game after three games in a week sapped their energy and was a deciding factor in losing against Leeds.
Despite the Hammers looking leggy, Vladimir Coufal insists he has no concerns over the heavy workload. “We don’t have the options like Man City or Liverpool or other teams [around us],” said the full-back.
“But I am happy to be each minute on the pitch and I want to play as much as possible. Also Tomas [Soucek], Declan [Rice] and others, we enjoy being together on the pitch. It is no reason to be tired with these minutes.”
Tomorrow’s game is expected to come too soon for Said Benrahma to be involved after Algeria failed to make it out of their group at the Africa Cup of Nations last night.
