Tottenham should swoop for this Manchester United star
Tottenham would be well swerved to swoop in for Manchester United attacker Jesse Lingard this summer
At this point in the Premier League calendar, Tottenham fans, like all of their English brethren, are captivated by the idea of signing talented attackers from abroad to transform their side. Instead of splashing big fees abroad, Spurs would we wise to make some solid purchases of undervalued Premier League players.
Manchester United attacker Jesse Lingard might be the perfect embodiment of what Spurs should be looking for at the moment. The 23-year-old Englishman didn’t quite have a break out season for the Red Devils last year, but he showed plenty of promise. His campaign looked a lot like one of a player who is burst onto the world stage next year.
In most summers, United wouldn’t consider parting with a young English prospect of Lingard’s talent and experience. However, this isn’t most summers at Old Trafford. This is the summer where Jose Mourinho will make his imperious return to Premier League football.
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The Portuguese manager didn’t agree to take the job without serious assurances about the size of his transfer war chest. You can count on Ed Woodward and company spending big money this off-season to get the club back into the title picture. A significant amount of those funds will be used to bring in new attacking players.
Big name acquisitions like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi or Antoine Griezmann aren’t going to leave much playing time for Lingard. While I don’t really expect United to hit on all three of those prospects, I do anticipate them purchasing players with much bigger reputations and resumes than Lingard.
That could leave Tottenham with a unique opportunity to swoop in and poach the English talent. By all objective measures, Lingard seems more like a Spurs than Red Devil player anyway. He is young, English and much of his game is centered around an extremely high work-rate. He sounds a lot more like Dele Alli than Juan Mata.
He also happens to possess the positional versatility that Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino covets as well. He lined up all over the pitch for Louis van Gaal last season and showed well in a variety of midfield positions. He would fit right in with the collection of Spurs attacking midfielders that constantly interchange positions throughout the match.
Lingard wouldn’t be expected to come right in and command a starting position at Tottenham either. The amount of talent that Spurs currently have in the squad would allow him to continue his career development at a healthy, but reasonable pace.
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Making the move from United to Tottenham might be the best thing Jesse Lingard could do for his career. It also might be a transaction that helps Tottenham stay ahead of Manchester United in next year’s Premier League table.