Gary Neville has told Jesse Lingard to move on after he expressed his disappointed at not receiving a send-off during the closing stages of Manchester United’s final home game of the season, saying he does not have a “god-given right” to get one.
Lingard will leave United, the club he joined at the age of nine, at the end of the season and was an unused substitute in their 3-0 win over Brentford, which signed off their home campaign last week.
United were then dubbed as “classless” by Lingard’s brother, Louie Scott, at what he perceived to be a lack of respect given the 29-year-old’s service to his boyhood team. United’s interim manager Ralf Rangnick also defended his decision to not give Lingard some late minutes, after Juan Mata and Phil Jones were offered farewell appearances.
Neville has now called the discussion surrounding the send-off “nonsense”, highlighting that former United captains Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce did not receive such a gesture when they left the club and adding that his United career ended in a “toilet” following a performance at West Brom that spelled the end of his playing days.
“There was a lot of nonsense spoken about Lingard,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast. “He’s been at the club a long time and done a good job. But I’ve seen Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce not play in their last games for the club and not get a send-off in cup finals.
“They were both great captains and one of them probably is the greatest captain Manchester United have ever had. They didn’t get the send-off they wanted so I’m not sure why Lingard deserved it. I was thrown away in West Brom in a toilet - sometimes it just doesn’t work out, Jesse!
“To feel like you’ve a god-given right to get some minutes on the pitch based on how they played. Not one of them, other than David de Gea and Cristiano Ronaldo, can complain about what will happen to them this summer.”
United were thrashed 4-0 by Brighton in an embarrassing defeat on Saturday and now have two weeks until their final game of the season. It means they could still be caught by West Ham and finish seventh in what has been a disastrous season.
