Tonight marks the first time Jesse Lingard has played at Old Trafford while representing Nottingham Forest. He will be thinking about the unsolved questions as he makes his way to the away dressing room.
He played for Manchester United for more than 20 years, scoring in memorable FA Cup and League Cup final victories as a kid, teen, and later first-team professional.
He battled his way through one of the most illustrious football academies around before going on to win four titles and represent England internationally.
But he is left wondering why he was so quickly dismissed from a team that had asked him back following a fruitful loan stint at West Ham.
But he can't help but wonder why he was so abruptly fired from a team that had asked him back following a fruitful loan stint at West Ham United in 2021. Although Lingard's career has advanced, he still finds it difficult to reconcile the politics of his final season at United.
“I don’t know why I wasn’t playing. I don’t know what the problem was, whether it was politics or whatever,” he revealed. “I still haven’t got an answer to this day. I didn’t even ask. I’d rather that someone out of respect for me being there that long told me ‘This is why you’re not playing’, but I never got that. It was false promises. I was training hard and I was sharp, I was ready to play them games.”
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who had assured Lingard of regular football when he returned from that fruitful loan at West Ham, made those promises. After Solskjaer was fired in November 2021, Ralf Rangnick was named temporary manager, ensuring that Lingard only made two league starts in his last season.
Additionally, United's final home game of the year against Brentford prevented him from saying goodbye.
“I had to grind out that last year because I knew I’d be on a free [transfer],” he added. “I’m not really the type of guy to sulk around the dressing room, I’m always that bubbly character with good vibes.
“I was getting on with my training, then here and there I’d come on and try to give my best. The last year was difficult.”
Even though getting cut by his local team was heartbreaking, the off-field problems that made him think about quitting football took priority.
In 2019, Kirsty, his mother, was taken to a hospital in London due to depression, and Lingard acknowledges that this had an adverse effect on his own mental health.
In a Channel 4 documentary titled The Jesse Lingard Story: Untold, he spoke persuasively about such issues, revealing a different side to the outgoing extrovert known to millions of people online as JLingz.
“The documentary helped a lot because many people don’t know what goes on behind closed doors,” he explained. “They just see Lingard on the pitch, instead of Jesse off the pitch. I just wanted to give fans and viewers an insight into who I am: the family man, the father, and not just the footballer."
“When I was going through bad periods in my life and trying to play football, I wasn’t saying anything to anyone about what was going on at home. I was bottling things up."
“We’re not robots, we have emotions and feelings. When you’re getting abuse 24/7, it can affect anyone. If you were doing a nine-to-five job and getting constant abuse, you don’t want to work there any more. Sometimes it can take its toll and it’s too much to handle.”
Lingard remembers a moment when he recovered the spark just before the initial Covid-19 lockout in March 2020. It was a lightbulb moment when his oldest brother, Louie, gave him a stack of vintage DVDs featuring his best performances for United and England.
“I’d say lockdown saved my career. It was a terrible time for everybody, but it was a reset button for me,” he said. “It was a chance to see that there was still a player in there. It was about getting it out of me and having that confidence and belief in myself. It was about finding that hunger and fire in my belly again.”
Lingard claims that he is currently at his "happy zone" almost three years later.
He provided an assist and scored his first goal for Forest against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup last month. He then turned in arguably his best performance in the win over Crystal Palace. He also performed admirably in Wednesday night's 4-1 triumph over Blackburn for Forest.
Post a Comment