Nottingham Forest summer signing Jesse Lingard has revealed he felt more wanted by the Reds than any other club during the last transfer window.
After leaving Manchester United at the end of his contract, Lingard was a free agent and without a club for much of the month of July before a free transfer to the Reds was agreed.
West Ham United, where the player spent five months on loan during the second half of the 2020/21 season, did everything they could to sign the player permanently, a fact recently revealed by their manager, David Moyes.
Much to the surprise of Moyes, Lingard chose Forest over a return to the capital. Since then, Lingard has made 14 appearances for Forest so far this season, scoring one goal and assisting in another - both in a Carabao Cup third round tie against West Ham's cross-London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
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Lingard has now revealed in an interview that a lack of playing time was behind leaving Old Trafford and that the love shown by the Reds' owners factored into opting for the East Midlands over East London. “I wanted to play regular football," Lingard told The Athletic . "It is hard sitting on the bench. It was my time to move on."
“I knew it would benefit me, if I moved to Nottingham. I had lots of conversations with the owners; with the Marinakis family. They showed a lot of love towards me.
“You have to go into a team where you feel wanted. I felt that more from them than from anyone else.”
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