Rangers have been linked with a move for Manchester United’s outcast midfielder, Jesse Lingard, with a report in TEAMtalk claiming that they are “interested” in the England international.
His experience at the highest level of football would no doubt be an asset, however, there is more than one reason why Steven Gerrard and Ross Wilson should look elsewhere.
Lingard can’t get anywhere near the Man Utd squad on a match day and there is a reason for this, he doesn’t have the pace or ability to beat a man required to cause problems in the position that he plays, nor does he have the range of passing to break stubborn defences down.
Playing as one of the front three for Rangers requires at least one of, if not a combination of these qualities, even if you look at the likes of Scott Arfield and Joe Aribo who have played further forward in the past they have a running power on and off the ball that Lingard lacks.
If you had suggested a couple of years ago that turning down an England international, in his prime years, with no real injury history should be considered by the Rangers recruitment team, you would have been laughed at – and rightly so – but the way that we are playing and the personnel that have so deeply bought into our tactics and ethos possess attributes that the Man Utd academy graduate is often criticised for not displaying.
The only thing I would say is that Gerrard has improved several members of the Light Blues squad, most notably in midfield and attack, and he could quite possibly get a tune out of Lingard, not for me though, and probably best for the player’s own safety – if Jimmy Bell saw him doing some of the things he has done whilst at Man Utd’s training facility, his feet wouldn’t touch the ground on the way out of Auchenhowie.