David Moyes believes Jesse Lingard - on loan from Manchester United - can bring a winning mentality to the West Ham dressing room, like Phil Neville and Tim Howard did for him at his former club Everton
Saturday 13 February 2021 23:26, UK
West Ham boss David Moyes has revealed Sir Alex Ferguson has told him he is keeping a close eye on Manchester United loanee Jesse Lingard.
Lingard scored twice on his Hammers debut at Aston Villa on February 3 after joining the club on loan from Old Trafford, where Moyes had an unhappy spell as manager following the departure of Ferguson.
The England international was ineligible for the FA Cup tie at Manchester United on Tuesday but will be back in the squad for Monday's Premier League game against bottom side Sheffield United.
Asked about Lingard bringing a winning mentality to, Moyes said: "I refer back to my time at Everton when I brought Phil Neville in and I brought Tim Howard in.
"Phil Neville was great for his mentality and what he brought, it really gave us another edge. Him as a player as well gave us something else. I'm hoping Jesse does the same.
"He's only here in the short term but already I've spoken with Sir Alex, who asked me to pass on his best to Jesse; he mentioned he was thinking about him because Sir Alex had him as a boy at Old Trafford.
"That just shows you the interest Sir Alex has in all the young players he had, all his teams and all his clubs he shows a great interest in them and he was pleased Jesse got off to a good start."
West Ham are one of the surprise packages of the season after finishing just five points above the relegation zone in the previous campaign with 39 points from 38 games.
They have already matched that points tally to sit just outside the Champions League places and, if outsiders have been taken aback by their success, Moyes always maintained his self-belief.
"West Ham as a football club and the group of players have been remarkable," he added. "The players have been brilliant in everything they've done.
"As for myself, I've been a bit surprised because I've said many times that most of the teams in my career I've tended to be managing around the top of the league, not around the bottom of the league. So it's only a little bit in recent jobs where I've been asked to do that.
"But I'm hoping that the future is we're going to be managing West Ham around the top of the league.
"I have been in this situation before and I have tried to explain how you can have a good season and then have a bad season. That happened at the start but we need to get to a level of stability with your team.
"We have the best improvement in total points since this time last season than any other team and it is possibly too big a spike. Somewhere along the line, we have to get a consistency for our level and I hope it is the level we are at now.
"The players know inside the dressing room exactly what I want and what I expect, but that is for the dressing room and not for anybody else."
