Rio Ferdinand has claimed that Man United midfielder Jesse Lingard will not be welcomed at Arsenal Football club.
The 28 year-old has been rejuvenated since leaving the Red Devils on loan in January to join West Ham, scoring eight goals and assisting four in only nine Premier League outings.
His future has been a strong talking point in recent weeks, with his interest growing following his performances, and the Gunners have been amongst those strongest linked.
Rio Ferdinand cannot see our fans welcoming Lingard to the club however, going as far as to say that we ‘would rip the place apart.
“Yeah but you know what they [Arsenal fans] wouldn’t have him there,” he told his FIVE YouTube channel.
“The way he moonwalked off that pitch once, they wouldn’t have it. The fans would rip the place apart. He disrespected the Emirates in a way that hadn’t been seen.
“Listen West Ham will have a fight to get him by the way because I think other teams are going to be like: ‘Listen, we want him!’
“He’s not going to go to Arsenal over West Ham, obviously but there will be other teams. He ain’t going nowhere near Arsenal.”
I don’t think the same however. Lingard is an England international, and while Rio may have seen what he did as disrespectful to our club, if a player can improve our side than he can’t be overlooked.
Arsenal are not in the position to turn down players on sentimental values, and I personally don’t feel any anger towards Lingard for his antics in the moment.
Would any of you say you hated Lingard? Would he not be welcome at the Emirates?
Patrick
The bigger question is though, why would he currently come to us over West Ham, unless for massive wages, which we wouldn’t offer, would we? Oh, I forgot, of course we would….
I doubt Arsenal would go for him anyway, because I doubt he will be that cheap, he’s 28 and will therefore have little option to extend or much resale value.
I would never say it couldnt possibly happen, but I would expect Arsenal to go for someone younger, possibly cheaper, possibly less offensive to some of the Arsenal fans.
arsenal once signed mikel silvestre smh
What like Willian?
Lingard played his first game for Man U seniors in 2011 .
Lingard never really made it at Man U
and was really just a home grown quota player.
Now after a few good games on loan he is all of a sudden “reported” to be on our summer transfer radar.
I would take him on a free transfer only and give him a one season contract. I would pay him 5k per week with 20k win bonus.
@Wyoming – I don’t think you have quite got the hang of how it all works PAL do you?
Wyoming, do you honestly think that he would accept your “pie in the sky” contract…. or come to that, manure as well?
This guy.
Phil and ken, I would hope that Wyoming is being facetious; however my concern is that he is dead set serious!
I agree with Grimlar’s assessment. Arsenal doesn’t need any more mercenaries.
Wyoming got it right. A few good games and “he’s the best thing since sliced bread”…
No thanks. Good luck to him if he can resurrect his career away from united but we need to develop our players that we have for that position and strengthen other areas in our team.
People forget that Chamakh scored 6 goals in 6 Champions League games, a UEFA record at the time and everyone slags him off now as a bad signing, Sonogo scored 4 goals in a friendly against Benfica and look how he is regarded now. Lingard scores a few for West Ham and he’s better than anyone in the Prem, but would likely end up the same.
No personal issues with Lingard. All players celebrate goals at rivals., And Wenger tried to get him too so there’s history. But I’m not convinced he’d want to come.