Man Utd dressing room a disaster, Lingard admits

Robin Bairner

• 23 Apr 2022 15:27 BST
• 2 min read

A split in the Manchester United dressing room has been confirmed by outgoing attacker Jesse Lingard and made public by pundit Paul Scholes.

Rumours have been brewing about problems behind the scenes at Old Trafford for weeks now. Factions are said to have rallied behind either Harry Maguire or Cristiano Ronaldo, with major problems in the balance of the squad.

Interim manager Ralf Rangnick went some way to confirming this when he admitted during a press conference on Friday that the job of resurrecting this team will be like “open-heart surgery”, but there had never been official confirmation of just how bad the situation is from within the squad until this point.

Speaking from his role as a pundit with BT Sport, Manchester United midfield legend Paul Scholes confirmed: “I had a quick chat with Jesse Lingard the other day. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying — the dressing room is just a disaster.”

While Scholes going public with the news is not likely to go down well at Old Trafford, Lingard is unlikely to be too concerned. He is one of the players who is out of contract at the end of June and is all but certain to be leaving his boyhood club.

He is also one of the players who has greatest reason for being disgruntled with the state of things at Old Trafford. He had pushed for a transfer last summer after a successful loan at West Ham but was promised more game time by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the summer and was then not allowed to leave when there was interest in January.

Man Utd’s issues, though, stretch far deeper than Lingard and as the summer develops it is likely a clearer picture will emerge of just how bad a state the team has been in.