Paul the Wolf
Former Score Predictions Comp Organiser (now out)
It’s a bit of a pointless comparison comparing him with Cantona. He’s played more games that RVP and Zlatan as well?
I’m not ‘justifying his presence’. Just that the amount of crap he gets is unwarranted. As a club, we have been poor over the last 7 years, and seen such a churn of players and no direction. Lingard has generally always been available and played various roles. Now we are in a position where our squad is strong enough that he’s not in the first team. That’s good news, and there’s no need to be so dramatic towards him with such hostility.
I’m sure you celebrated the goal he scored in the FA Cup final.
The big mistake the club made was to give him a long contract on high wages, mainly because he scored that goal - proved a very expensive goal and not just in terms of money . Of course I celebrated it, but then I did when Lee Martin scored against Palace in 1990 , doesn't mean I want him to be in the side now, nor does Lingard scoring the Cup Final winner justify him being in the squad now four years later, and his only real contribution to the club since was a couple of brief spells of form which always seem to fall in December .
If he hadn't scored that goal his future career would have been vastly different and I don't see any PL club coming in for him now. I don't support individual players , I support Manchester United, it looks like we're finally moving away from the bad decisions of the past few years .