Jesse Lingard: From Man Utd favourite to 'f*cking about in the gym* - so will former England man ever play football again?

Lingard gradually fell down the United pecking order after Mourinho's sacking in December 2019. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer favoured alternative options in the final third, and eventually sanctioned a loan move to West Ham for the England international in January 2021.

The London Stadium proved to be the perfect environment for Lingard to rediscover his confidence, as he registered nine goals and five assists in just 16 appearances for the Hammers, prompting Solskjaer to give him one last chance at Old Trafford.

"When I came back to United, I felt like a different person," Lingard added in the Players' Tribune. "More mature, more confident. I’m taking more responsibility." But within the space of just a few weeks of the 2021-22 season, it became clear he would never regain his status as a United regular.

Lingard finished the campaign with only two Premier League starts to his name, with Ralf Rangnick also leaving him out in the cold after replacing Solskjaer as interim manager. United let the academy graduate's contract expire, and his 22-year association with the club came to a sad end.

“I don’t know why I wasn’t playing,” Lingard told the Daily Telegraph when quizzed on his final year at Old Trafford. “I don’t know what the problem was, whether it was politics or whatever. It was false promises. I was training hard and I was sharp, I was ready to play them games. When you’re working hard in training and don’t play at the end of it, it’s very frustrating.”

West Ham went back in for Lingard ahead of the 2022-23 season, but baulked at his hefty £180,000-per-week contract demands. According to The Athletic, the former United man also received firm offers from Newcastle and Fulham, with four-year contracts on the table at both clubs.

In the end, though, Lingard opted for a lucrative one-year deal at Forest, who had only just been promoted back to the top-flight. The Championship play-off winners were initially prepared to tie Lingard down until 2024, but his representatives urged him to accept a shorter stay.

Their thinking was that one impressive season at the City Ground would transform Lingard into one of the most sought-after free agents on the continent, but the plan backfired in spectacular fashion. Lingard only scored twice in 20 outings for Forest, and spent most of the campaign warming the bench.

The move was a success in a financial sense, as Lingard pocketed a reported £2.4m in wages during his short spell at the club, but his reputation on the pitch took a hit that he has so far been unable to recover from. Although bad luck with injuries undeniably played a role, Lingard didn't make any telling contribution as Forest successfully avoided relegation, posting an embarrassing 0.2 average for shots on target in the Premier League.

Shortly after Lingard's exit at Forest, rumours began circling that he was a target for MLS outfit D.C. United, who were managed by Wayne Rooney at the time. The Manchester United legend fuelled that speculation in an interview with The Times, saying: "Last year when Jesse Lingard signed for a year with Forest, we put him on our Discovery List because you thought there’s every chance that after a year at Forest he’ll want to come to the U.S. and that would mean we could sign him or get money for him."

There was even talk of a potential bidding war between D.C. and Inter Miami, with Lingard travelling to the United States to train at DRV PNK Stadium, where a certain Lionel Messi had also just embarked on his own new chapter. However, neither club made a formal approach for the experienced forward, and he turned his attention back to the Premier League.

Lingard returned to West Ham to keep up his fitness, sparking talk of a potential short-term deal. “Jesse has trained with us for three weeks and he’s improved greatly from when he first came in," Moyes said of Lingard's progress in early September. "I want to give him every opportunity to get himself back in condition and see how he does."

The Hammers boss even gave Lingard a run out in a behind-closed doors friendly against Ipswich Town, but by the end of his six-week trial, Moyes decided against bringing him into the squad permanently. "We like Jesse a lot, but I just don’t know if we need another player in the position he would probably play for us," the Scot later explained.

"Saudi Arabia are doing big things, and in the next couple of years or so, it will be one of the hotspots to go to," Lingard said in an interview with Sky Sports last summer. "I'm not really surprised that the big names are moving out there. Like I say, they're doing big things and it's something I would consider. I've not ruled that out. It's got to be right for me at the end of the day. I've got to go on my gut feeling, but I'm still hungry and striving for success."

Lingard's gut feeling took him to Al-Ettifaq, with Steven Gerrard bringing the former England man on for a one-month training programme after his surprise appointment at the Pro League club. Ex-Premier League stars Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Demarai Gray and Moussa Dembele had also made the jump to Al-Ettifaq, which helped Lingard settle in quickly.

Gerrard named Lingard in his starting line-up for a friendly clash with Al-Khaldiya on October 11, and he marked the occasion with a goal. By the end of his training contract, Al-Ettifaq had seen enough to suggest Lingard could be a valuable addition, but they had already exceeded their quota for overseas players.

The Saudi club had the option to wait until January to sign Lingard, but it was reported that they weren't prepared to axe two players to make room for him, and his wages were also a stumbling block. Lingard was sent back to square one, despite Gerrard's reported attempts to work out a deal, but that setback doesn't appear to have affected him mentally.

Lingard has always been a prolific social media user, not least because he has his own clothing company, esports team and the media company 'One Touch Entertainment' to promote away from the pitch. But since dropping into the free agency pool, he has also used Instagram to sell himself to new clubs, regularly posting videos of his training routines and photos showing off his lean physical condition.

"Even the hardest days will eventually pass. We only do positive," he wrote in one such post in November. Lingard then returned to the Middle East for warm-weather training, and released a number of videos designed to draw the attention of potential suitors last week.

He captioned the post "start the year right", with the clips including several well-struck goals and passing drills. Lingard, who claims to be in "revival mode" this year, has even gone so far as to offer himself to reigning La Liga champions Barcelona - according to a report from Diario Sport.

"Motivation, hunger and love for the game," another recent entry read. 'JLingz' is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to return to elite level football, but the reality is, he needs to lower his expectations. Barcelona are not going to be interested in Lingard, and nor will any other top European club.

It has been reported that Wolves and an unnamed club from Italy also expressed an interest in Lingard, but negotiations never went anywhere. Lingard hasn't dropped his salary demands, and appears to be quite content to wait for a proposal that ticks all of his boxes.

But the longer he spends away from the game, the less likely it is that he will ever be able to get his career back on track. After all, Lingard hasn't played a competitive game since a two-minute cameo against former club United in April, and the last time he completed a full 90 minutes in the Premier League was back when he was turning out for West Ham on loan.

The sad situation has been best summed up by United legend Paul Scholes, who attempted to give Lingard a brutal reality check after his latest set of gym posts on Instagram, writing in the replies: "Are you just gonna f*ck about in the gym or are you gonna actually play football?"

Lingard's entourage also sounded out three Ligue 1 clubs over a possible deal for Lingard in December, including Lille. However, French teams can only register four players from non-EU states or countries, with the former United talisman hampered by the Brexit regulations that came into effect in the United Kingdom in 2020.

Everton are the latest club to be credited with interest in Lingard, but it's unlikely they would be able to match his demands amid their current financial plight, and so his search for a new club looks likely to rumble on beyond January. It has been suggested that Lingard's daily social posts are actually bait for MLS clubs, with the attacker having previously been open about his desire to experience soccer in the U.S. before he hangs up his boots.

He said on the Diary of a CEO podcast last January: "The media company is based in LA and that’s where eventually I want to finish football. Finish in America? Yeah, I think so.”

The 2024 MLS season is scheduled to kick off on February 21, with Messi and Inter Miami set to host the curtain-raiser against Real Salt Lake. The problem is, Lingard's links with American clubs have gone cold.

Even though Lingard is still saying all the right things on Instagram, he must privately be regretting some of his decisions over the past two years. He's still young and fit enough to keep playing through to at least his mid-30s, but this career hiatus may just have caused irreparable damage.