Coventry City backed to sign Jesse Lingard on one condition | OneFootball

FLW's Coventry City fan pundit has had his say on Jesse Lingard potentially joining the club outside of them transfer window.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Coventry City have reportedly rejected the chance to bring in former Man United ace Jesse Lingard outside of the January transfer window.

According to TEAMtalk, three Championship promotion contenders turned down the opportunity to sign the former Manchester United attacker. He was linked to Coventry, Middlesbrough, and Ipswich Town.

Lingard has had huge salaries in his career so far and it's no great surprise that Coventry are among those to have turned Lingard down. The now 33-year-old has been playing in South Korea for the last couple of seasons.

Lingard has played Championship football for the likes of Leicester City, Birmingham City, Brighton, and Derby County. He scored 12 and assisted seven in 49 Championship and play-off matches before making it at Old Trafford. But a return to the second tier appears unlikely currently.

Soccer Football - Europa League - Group L - Astana v Manchester United - Astana Arena, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan - November 28, 2019 Manchester United's Jesse Lingard celebrates scoring their first goal with Tahith Chong REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Football League World have spoken to our Coventry fan pundit Chris Deez to get his assessment on the fact Coventry have rejected the opportunity to sign him. Was it the right or wrong call?

He said: "The thing about Jesse Lingard is that he gets a lot of mockery because he's become more of a TikTok dancer than a decent footballer, over the years. He was good for United in fairly big spells.

"But then really good for West Ham, so we know that there is still a quality player in there. When he can be bothered and if he can apply himself and didn't have an attitude problem. That would probably be my big worry in the Championship, if he came to Coventry.

"However, first of all, we wouldn't be able to afford his wages. He is not going to drop down to £25,000 or £30,000 per week, which seems to be the absolute limit for Doug King.

"It's why we didn't sign [Frank] Onyeka and we got him on a loan first. Hopefully, if we get promoted, we will have a bigger wage budget and a bigger wage cap and we will then be able to offer these players the money that they want to actually come to us.

"As I say, I think Lingard, if he actually applies himself and doesn't have that sort of ego about him, can absolutely be an asset for a top six, seven, eight Championship club. I think he could absolutely do a job for an Ipswich, Sheffield United, a Wrexham, even a Birmingham.

"Those are the kinds of clubs who are happy to spend that money. If you'd have said to me that we were linked with Lingard at the start of January, I'd have probably said yes and been all for that.

"Because Jack Rudoni was so badly out of form. He came back too early, he hadn't rehabbed his injury properly, and he came back because we had injury problems; I don't blame him.

"But these last three, four, five games he has been getting back to himself. Against Middlesbrough, he absolutely ran his socks off. He was incredible and put in such a shift. Against West Brom, he scored an absolute screamer."

Jesse Lingard's competition at Coventry City also makes a switch unlikely

There are also a number of attacking players who will be left out of Frank Lampard's matchday squad when everyone is fit, which perhaps makes it difficult to envisage a world where Coventry require Lingard without further injury concerns.

Chris added: "It's starting to look like we have last season's Rudoni back, which is absolutely massive for this end-of-season push for automatic promotion. But, yeah, I like Lingard. I don't have a problem with him.

"It's very easy to mock him and make jokes on Twitter (X) about him. His career has gone a bit south and a bit weird, you know? Going off and playing for FC Seoul, where they absolutely adored him and idolised him.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with having a player that good in the dressing room. But, at this moment in time, we've got [Brandon] Thomas-Asante who is going to struggle to get back on the pitch now with all the players being as great as they have been over the last couple of games.

"We've got [Jahnoah] Markelo and he wasn't even on the bench against West Brom. We've got a lot of options. Onyeka has come in and changed things up for us big time. So, yeah, I like Lingard and have no issue with him but I don't think he fits.