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Man United Loanee Jesse Lingard Rejuvenates Career at West Ham

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No matter where Jesse Lingard goes from here, he’ll always be an answer to a compelling Manchester United trivia question- the guy who scored both the last goal of the Louis van Gaal era and the first of the Jose Mourinho regime.

While his career at Old Trafford went into severe decline, the young Englishman has found new life at West Ham United. Frozen out of the Red Devils squad, he went out on loan with the Hammers in January, and now all the Irons are in the fire for him in London.

The 28-year-old is absolutely crushing it with WHU, as today marked the first time in his career that he’s scored in four straight games. Lingard bagged a brace today, as the Hammers beat Leicester City 3-2, and in the process broke the top four race wide open. He now has eight goals and three assists from just nine Premier League games this season.
His eight goals tie him with Leicester’s Kelechi Iheanacho for the most scored in the Premier League since February 3. Not bad for a guy Roy Keane once called “a high salaried professional Instagrammer,” with that joke being spot on accurate at the time he said it.

Today, Keane was asked to give a rating, 1-10, of Lingard’s goal celebration dance, while doing punditry work for Sky Sports: He responded with brutal honesty: “One. I used to do this dance before, usually after a load of Bacardi and Coke.

“When he scores goals like that I suppose I have to give him a little bit of credit.”

Keane has to be happy that Lingard has gotten his groove back, finally as this is the kind of thing that’s always nice to see. Lingard actually went over a year without scoring a domestic goal! Feels like ancient history now. 

Yes, Lingard has more league goals this season than two of Liverpool’s vaunted front three. Right now, you could make the case that he’s the league most exciting player. The only member of the Hammers with more league goals this season is Tomas Soucek, and he has only one more.

At this point, United will be really excited to bring him back. Or they could massively cash in on a permanent sale, as his stock has never been higher.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.