Newcastle United owner claims Manchester United player desperately wanted to join Newcastle United

Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has claimed Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard desperately wanted to join Newcastle United in January.

The England international was frustrated with his lack of playing time at Old Trafford this season under both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.

“We were 19th going into the window. So we had that, an illiquid market, and the complexity of Covid-19, which meant clubs didn’t want to sell because they didn’t know where their squads would end up,” Staveley told The Athletic.

“We had to encourage players – ‘we’ll be a safe place for you, we’ll deliver and grow’. Some desperately wanted to come to us, like Sven [Botman], who still does very much and has talked very openly about that.

“Coming through all that showed us we can do it, that we can stick to our plan and if we get criticised on the last day for: ‘Oh, you’re going after Jesse [Lingard]’, well, Jesse wanted to come to us.

“We did everything. We never stopped. From the start to the finish, we did not stop working.”