Jesse Lingard: Homegrown Talent

Jesse Lingard signed a new four year contract with Manchester United last week. The British soccer media was outraged because of the wages he will be receiving, which are reported to be £100,000 a week. Their argument is that for a player that is more of a squad rotation player rather than a starter should not be getting payed that much.

I see no problem with him being paid this much however. As a kid, I grew up supporting the New York Yankees, who are almost always paying too much money to a player (looking at you A-Rod). So when my soccer team, Manchester United, pay a player a little too much money, it's hard for me to be upset.

This is especially true in the case of Lingard, who almost always seems to score bangers at Wembley Stadium. His goal against Crystal Palace (shown above) won United the FA Cup and was absolutely unsaveable. This goal means even more when one takes into account the fact that the FA Cup was Louis van Gaal's only trophy over two years at the club.

Fast forward to August of 2016 and Lingard is now playing under new manager Jose Mourinho in the Community Shield, an annual friendly player between the winners of the FA Cup and the previous season's Premier League champions. He started over new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan, which some called into question. After thirty minutes, United were struggling to break through. Again, Lingard stepped up at Wembley, going on a brilliant run to put United up 1-0.

Lingard has since played a key role in Mourinho's team, providing chances as an alternative to Mkhitaryan whenever the latter is injured or needs a rest. The goals aren't as numerous, with Zlatan pretty much carrying the scoring load. The last goal of note happened recently, with a magnificent strike against Middlesbrough putting United 2-0 up, and he added a celebration that had Twitter going wild.