Arsenal fans can breathe a sign of relief that they won’t have to pretend to like Jesse Lingard with Rio Ferdinand stating the player would be ‘going nowhere near Arsenal’.

Jesse Lingard of West Ham celebrates scoring the 1st goal Wolverhampton Wanderers v West Ham United, Premier League, Football, Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, 05 Apr 2021 Copyright: Paul Currie/BPI/Shutterstock
Jesse Lingard of West Ham celebrates scoring the 1st goal Wolverhampton Wanderers v West Ham United, Premier League, Football, Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, 05 Apr 2021 Copyright: Paul Currie/BPI/Shutterstock

Speaking on the Five Youtube channel, Rio Ferdinand showed a grasp of the situation between Arsenal fans and Jesse Lingard in ways many others in the media have missed totally.

He may well be the Premier League’s in-form man, but it would take a little more than that for Arsenal fans to give him a fair crack should he rock up at the club in the summer.

Arsenal tried to sign Lingard on loan in January, according to recent reports, but United allegedly didn’t want to sell to a rival, stretching the definition of that word to its limit given Arsenal’s current plight.

Off to West Ham he went where he netted an impressive eight goals, with four assists, in just nine Premier League matches.

At the weekend, the Sunday Mirror claimed that Arsenal were, again, going to try and sign the player.

“You know what, they [Arsenal fans] wouldn’t have him there,” Ferdinand told the Five YouTube channel.

“The way he moonwalked off that pitch once, they wouldn’t have it. The fans would rip the place apart. He disrespected the Emirates in a way that hadn’t been seen.

“Listen, West Ham will have a fight to get him by the way, because I think other teams are going to be like: ‘Listen, we want him!’

“He’s not going to go to Arsenal over West Ham obviously, but there will be other teams. He ain’t going nowhere near Arsenal.”