Ibrox View: Rangers made transfer error with ‘brilliant’ 28y/o
Rangers were interested in Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard this January, according to TEAMtalk, and he has shown everyone that the Gers made a mistake in not signing him.
The 28-year-old signed for West Ham on loan as he looks to salvage his hopes of making the England squad for this summer’s European Championships.
He lit up Villa Park on his debut as he scored two goals and created many chances in a man of the match performance for his new side.
David Moyes is quoted as calling Lingard’s performance ‘brilliant’ by Football.London and some Gers fans may be scratching their heads over why the club didn’t make a move for the attacker.
He is clearly still fit as he played the full game against Aston Villa which puts to bed any doubts over the player’s fitness.
A player who possesses the quality of Lingard would be an excellent addition at Ibrox and would be an especially vital asset in the later stages of the Europa League.
For context, we have compared the performances of Lingard against Villa and Ianis Hagi’s performance in Wednesday’s 1-0 win over St Johnstone.
Hagi was excellent against St Johnstone but he was outshone by Lingard who was also facing a much together opposition.
According to Wyscout, Lingard completed 91% of his passes against Villa while Hagi only completed 83% of his passes on Wednesday.
As well as this, Lingard managed to get 100% of his crosses to a teammate while 66% of Hagi’s crosses failed to find a man in blue.
These are some pretty basic stats but they show how Lingard, performing in a harder league against a good side, outshone Rangers’ best player against St Johnstone.
He would’ve been a brilliant signing.
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the attacker would’ve wanted to move to the Scottish Premiership as several Premier League clubs were interested in him.
But after his very impressive debut against the Villains, it is looking like Rangers missed out on an opportunity to sign a quality player who just needs regular football.
Questions will continue to be asked if Lingard continues to perform for West Ham but there is one major reason as to why the Gers may not have moved for the 28-year-old.
The Sun reported last week that Lingard could end up costing West Ham £4million for just a few months work.
This is clearly out of our budget which is presumably the main reason why Lingard isn’t currently a Rangers player.
Despite this massive fee, it would’ve been brilliant to see him at Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, Alex McLeish blown away by ‘Massive’ moment v St Johnstone