Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard has revealed that he turned to drinking as a result of mental struggles and even considered leaving the Premier League for China or Saudi Arabia, before deciding to revive his career with ‘Project Jesse 2.0’.
Lingard fell badly out of shape in 2019 and was released in practice entirely at United in early 2020. He had already been the victim of lots of online abuse and there were occasions at his lowest, completely without confidence, that he did not want to even leave his house.
At his lowest point, Lingard wanted to leave England, but thought that even going elsewhere in Europe would still have left him subjected to intense scrutiny.
But when Britain collapsed in a national lockdown in March 2020 and football was shut down, Lingard took it as an opportunity to hire a personal trainer and get himself back on track.
“We had times during the bad times when I started drinking at night and it was not me. My dad has never been a big drinker. My mother has never been a big drinker “, the player explained in an in-depth interview with the Daily Mail.
“I lost so much in my head that I had used to drink to try to relieve the pain. I’ve never been a big drinker, but I resorted to it for my own peace. When I finally opened up and started talking to the family, it really helped. I owe them.
“At my lowest point, I thought, ‘I have to get away from England.’ Not to Spain, but to China or Saudi Arabia, somewhere to stay out of the limelight and just concentrate on football.
“When the lockdown came, I wanted to use it to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and then show people what I could do,” he added.
Lingard worked with personal trainer Alexandros Alexiadis, a long-standing contact with older brother Louie Scott, and got ready to return to his best. That chance did not initially come with United, although he prepared for the game in detail in the event that, in his own words, he still trained like a pro. I was not moping about. ‘
Lingard rediscovered his best form of loan at West Ham / David Rogers / Getty Images
He still did not play for United halfway through 2020/21, did not make a single Premier League appearance and presented only twice in the EFL Cup. But he convinced Ole Gunnar Solskjær to let him leave on loan in January, with West Brom and Newcastle both options before West Ham took their approach directly from ex-United coach David Moyes.
Referring to a whiteboard he had in his East London apartment while in West Ham, Lingard explained the motivation it gave him to succeed after returning from his lowest.
“My brother posted it,” he said. “I woke up every morning and looked at the board. He would write a new word every night and eventually everything was filled in. Words that meant something to us. ‘GET TO HIM’, was one. “WC18”, as a reminder of that tournament. “THREE CUP FINAL GOALS”, to mark my FA Cup, EFL Cup, Community Shield finals.
“Little things to repeat what I had done and achieved. The board was good. I’m doing it again this season. We wrote down a reasonable goal of four goals and two assists from the international matches in March and we did it. I enjoyed my football and when I was confident I think I can score one or two goals in the match. ”
Lingard finished the season with nine goals and five assists in 16 Premier League games for West Ham, which helped the club finish in sixth place and qualify for group games in the Europa League. He will go down as one of the Premier League’s biggest loan deals ever and even play back to battle in his parent club, something that had previously seemed impossible.
He was absent ahead of the season’s opening match against Leeds on Saturday but is expected to be available for re-election when United face Southampton next weekend.
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