Rio Ferdinand tells player Newcastle could have signed he’s ‘wasted’ a year of his career

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Rio Ferdinand has told Newcastle United January target, Jesse Lingard, that he has now ‘wasted’ a year of his career at Manchester United, as he told Vibe with Five.

All throughout the winter transfer window, there was talk of Lingard leaving Man United, with Newcastle amongst the clubs keen on taking him on board.

Only until the final few hours of deadline day did the reports emerge that the goalscoring midfielder was going to stay put at Old Trafford, as reported by Sky Sports.

That was, of course, to the disappointment of the Toony Army faithful, who would have felt that the Englishman would have been their standout buy if he was signed up.

But, Lingard, who was on-loan at West Ham last January, received a blunt message from Manchester United legend, Ferdinand, regarding his future.

“I wouldn’t be happy if I was a player,” said Ferdinand. “It’s almost like he has wasted a whole year of his career. A whole season of his career he has wasted.

“He has hardly played any games. He went to West Ham and did fantastically well. Everyone would have wanted to take him outside of the top four.

“Then, he goes back to Man United and doesn’t play. I was just baffled that he went back to Man United in the first place after having that taste of success and that taste of playing every week.

“Either, he was promised by Ole that he would get more game time. This window, you thought he would do everything to get out. Maybe he took long to get to that point of wanting to leave.”

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with Lingard’s game time from now until the end of the season.

If he continues to warm the bench, then it would be a serious mistake for the player to not make the move last month.

But if he is able to earn those constant starts, then there is no reason why he shouldn’t start adding to his goal tally and work his way back into the England set-up.

This time last season, he was breaking his way back into Gareth Southgate’s thoughts after that spell at West Ham, but now he’s not even at the back of his mind.