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Ahead to his return to Old Trafford, Jesse Lingard criticizes Manchester United.
Jesse Lingard has criticized his former club Manchester United, stating that club management made “false promises” and that he was never given a legitimate explanation for why he was frozen out.
The 30-year-old midfielder made 232 appearances for United after graduating from their academy, but he struggled to get playing time in his later years at Old Trafford and only made four appearances in his final year.
After being sent out on loan to West Ham for the second half of the 2020–21 campaign, Lingard made an impression, but upon his return to United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick continued to ignore him.
Ahead of his return to Old Trafford as a player for Nottingham Forest, a freshly promoted team, Lingard admits he still feels misunderstood by his treatment at United.
I don’t know why I wasn’t playing,” Lingard told The Telegraph.
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“I don’t know what the problem was, whether it was politics or whatever. I still haven’t got an answer. I’d rather that someone had told me, ‘This is why you’re not playing’, out of respect for me being there so long, but I never got that.
“It was false promises. I was training hard and I was sharp, I was ready. So this is a chance to say my goodbyes because I never really got that. It will be an enjoyable occasion but we want to win the game. You can’t get caught up too much in it emotionally.”
Although Lingard’s Forest career has had a rocky beginning, he now appears to be finding his footing alongside the rest of the team as their form steadily improves.
In the summer of 2022, Forest added 22 players, completely overhauling their team and starting over in preparation for their re-entry into the top division.
While there were unavoidable growing pains, Steve Cooper’s club is sure they can compete with most teams and perhaps score enough points to make it through another season.