David Moyes has admitted his disappointment for Jesse Linhard since his return to Manchester United after his successful loan spell at West Ham. Lingard has seen little game time at Old Trafford and Moyes said this was a shame for such a talented player. With the January transfer window almost upon us, the manager was asked about potential transfer interest in Lingard but would not be drawn on whether the Hammers were keen to bring him back to the club.
David Moyes said: “I can’t really talk about him because he’s a Manchester United player and it’s not for me to talk. But he was really good for us. Jesse knows what we all think of him here. My disappointment for Jesse would be I think he’s such a talented football player and he’s not playing. He played a big part in our second half of last season. But the one thing you’d have to give credit to the players here, they’ve moved on without Jesse. People might have thought Jesse made a difference here. But the players have moved on and stepped to another level themselves. But I’ve got to say, Jesse was a big part of that.”
The manager admitted that bringing fresh faces to the club in January is a possibility and would like to repeat the success he had in the market with Kurt Zouma, however, he is not ruling out signing a relatively unknown prospect after the success of Vladimir Coufal.
David Moyes said: “I’m not saying that we’re still not going to try and find a Vladimir Coufal or someone else of that level. I think that we’re trying to keep the standards up. I don’t think that now we’re in need of loads of quantity. I would like to try and see if I could add bits of quality where you could say, ‘Oh wow, he’s going to threaten the team’. Last year, bringing Jesse, folk probably thought he’d not done a lot at Man United, not played, and he came in and gave us an incredible lift. I’ve got to keep looking for the players who can give us the burst of energy which we need to maybe keep us going. Then there is the other part of the player, is it someone who I’m going to have in the team for the next three or four years. To actually buy that one who will give you the exact burst of energy at the moment is probably really, really big money. That is what Kurt was in the summer, big money for us. If we keep the model going, keep the growth going and hope to challenge. I’m not saying we can, I actually think there are about 10 teams in the Premier League at similar levels. It is that close really.”
Zouma has settled in well at West Ham and Moyes has been delighted with his start to life as a Hammer ahead of the Frenchman facing his former club Chelsea.
David Moyes added: “He has helped us get to the next level or attempting to get to the next level. You can see the level of player that, to do it, that is what is going to have to be, that is where it needs to go. The thing about Kurt is he’s settled in really quickly, I knew because he had Premier League experience, he’s still 26-years old and in the French national team which is second or third in the world in terms of placement. For us to get that sort of player here at West Ham, adding to what we had. I did think we needed cover, another centre half to go with what we had last year. It took me a while because we had a few centre-halves and we looked, but always Kurt was the one. I thought if I could get [anyone], I want Kurt Zouma because he’s a good age, still probably got his best four or five years as a central defender ahead of him and also he’s probably got a couple of hundred games under his belt in the Premier League. For me, I felt he could be a good signing and he has been a really good signing for us.”
