Glen Johnson has urged Jesse Lingard to leave Manchester United and says he should return to West Ham rather than join Newcastle United.
Lingard is yet to start any Premier League or Champions League matches this season after deciding to remain at Old Trafford over the summer and fight for his place in the side.
The England international was heavily linked with a permanent move to West Ham following a successful loan spell in east London, but Lingard backed United’s decision to keep him as he thought he may feature regularly under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
That has not happened, however, and Lingard is now being heavily linked with a permanent transfer away from the club he joined at the age of seven.
David Moyes’ West Ham and Eddie Howe’s Newcastle have both expressed interest in signing Lingard ahead of the January transfer window and Johnson believes he should return to the Hammers.
‘At West Ham we saw how much Jesse enjoyed his football and the performances he got back to,’ Johnson told BettingOdds.
‘For £10million, I’m not being funny, who can you usually get for that price? You can’t get much of a player nowadays.
‘So if they can take him, he knows what he’s walking into, the club are doing great at the moment, he knows the team, and it’s a lot less risky a move than it is to sign for Newcastle right now.
‘I think he should go to West Ham, he clearly enjoyed it there and he knows what the club thought of him. Surely he’d want it all back.
‘West Ham and Newcastle are in totally different positions at the moment but that could all quickly change with the plans Newcastle have got.
‘But right now, with Newcastle, he doesn’t know what he’s walking into. Sometimes the grass ain’t greener.’
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Speaking earlier in the month, West Ham boss Moyes played down speculation Lingard could be set to bolster his squad at the London Stadium.
‘He’s a Manchester United player and I’m not going to talk about players at other clubs,’ the Irons manager told reporters.
‘All I can say is we really enjoyed having Jesse, he made a great contribution to the team and he’s helped the team.
‘The team’s moved on, we’ve kicked on again so, look, Jesse is a Manchester United player and it’s up to them to decide what he does.’
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