Jesse Lingard has hit back at claims that his generation of Manchester United youth stars ruined the culture at the club as he opened up on Wayne Rooney’s rule that no youngster should buy a “flashy” car until they had 50 appearances
Former Manchester United star Jesse Lingard has revealed how Wayne Rooney told youngsters at the club not to buy a “flashy” car until they had made 50 appearances at Old Trafford. Lingard came through the ranks at United, joining as a nine-year-old, and became a fan favourite as he played a total of 232 times for the Red Devils.
But his time at the club came to an acrimonious end after his contract ended in 2022 and his brother criticised United for not giving him a send-off following his final game against Brentford, calling the club “classless”.
Lingard – who now plays for FC Seoul in South Korea – was recently slammed on social media by a fan who accused himself and Paul Pogba of “ruining the culture” at the club and he hit back to defend himself and the Frenchman.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lingard said his generation only tried to enjoy themselves as they were coming through the ranks and said they were respectful of the senior players who guided them – such as Rooney.
“With us being in the first team, you know, it’s obviously knowing the right place, the right time to do things and stuff like that,” he said.
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“But ruining culture? We only tried to make it stronger. We responded to success and we smiled and laughed and we were winning games. So that is good culture, yeah?
“Wayne Rooney told me: ‘Don’t buy your first car until you’ve played 50 games.’ Obviously 50 games came and I drove in a Range Rover, parked up and Rooney is like: ‘Whose is that? Have you played 50 games now?’.
“And that was me accepted. I have never tried to be flash. Of course, if you have nice things sometimes you wanna show them. But the photographers would follow me and take pictures of me in my car every time we drove in.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Lingard refuted the suggestion that he was a “failure” at the club after winning three trophies with his boyhood club.
He added: “I 100 per cent do not feel failure, I feel achievement. You just gotta look at my story from seven years old, a kid from Warrington making it all the way through. The percentages of that are like 0.2 per cent or something. I got chosen.
“It’s a fight. It’s like a rollercoaster, especially being so young. And at the time you’re just thinking: ‘I’ve got to play football’.
“Fergie always believed in me. That was the only thing really for me. Sir Alex knows football. That meant everything, you know. At the time I just thought: ‘Is he magic? What kind of sorcery is this?’ You know what I mean?”
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