Nottingham Forest are the latest club to apparently claim they’re interested in former Manchester United player Jesse Lingard, according to The Guardian.
The Reds are now in the race to sign him, with West Ham also holding further talks with the player.
Lingard had a successful loan spell at the London Stadium during the 2020/21 campaign.
As a result, he’s attracted interest from the Hammers, Everton, Leicester, Newcastle and Tottenham.
The reason he’s not been hooked up yet is due to Lingard’s hefty wage demands.
He is holding out for a contract worth £180,000-a-week and naturally, that has put a lot of clubs off.
Lingard will hope to hit the ground running at his new club and force his way into the England squad for the World Cup.
With the Premier League campaign drawing ever closer, however, he will hope to get fixed up soon.
Lingard has left Old Trafford to end a long association on the books of United.
He scored 335 goals and claimed 21 assists during 231 appearances for the club.
Forest are desperately looking for attacking players and they’ve identified Lingard as a possible option.
Forest interested in Lingard but it looks a long shot
The Reds would love a player with Lingard’s top-flight experience but a move does seem unlikely.
Forest need attacking options before the season starts and Lingard won’t be the only iron in the fire.
The wage demands will surely rule Forest out of the running, although Evangelos Marinakis has stated that he will show ambition.
Forest would dearly love to add Lingard to their ranks and he’d suit Steve Cooper’s style of play perfectly.
If the Reds could somehow get this one over the line, it would send out a real statement of intent.
Rumour rating: 8/10: This one would be fantastic but we just can’t see it happening.
Lingard will have loads of options and Forest will surely need to look elsewhere.
At 29 he’s still got a few years left ahead of him and he would be a truly sensational signing for Forest.
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