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West Ham United are closing in on the loan signing of Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard.
Earlier this week, it was conceded that Lingard would be allowed to leave on loan for the rest of the season, in a bid to play regular first-team football and revive his England ambitions.
That alerted a whole host of clubs as to his availability, but West Ham are increasingly confident that they can win the race for his signature. Their manager David Moyes knows Lingard from his time at Old Trafford and believes he can improve his squad in the second-half of the season as they maintain their bid for European football.
And the East London club have now paved the way for Lingard’s arrival by converting the loan signing of Saïd Benrahma into a permanent deal. They were expected to make the Algerian’s move from Brentford permanent next summer but have now accelerated that by paying £25 million to ensure they did not fall foul of FA rules.
They prevent Premier League clubs from having more than two domestic loans at the same time.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.