Tottenham consider Jesse Lingard as homegrown option in midfield

Jesse Lingard has been under consideration at Tottenham following his departure from Manchester United as a free agent.

Spurs have bolstered their wide attacking areas with Richarlison and Ivan Perisic but Lingard, 29, is seen as a creative central midfielder where he played for England at the last World Cup.

West Ham have been in the race for Lingard following his loan to David Moyes’ squad last year when he forced his way back into Gareth Southgate's consideration for England.

But Spurs, who have been looking to add numbers to Antonio Conte’s squad to cope with Champions League football next season, have also looked at Lingard, who has the added bonus of being a homegrown player.

With Yves Bissouma also arriving from Brighton, Spurs are over the limit of non-homegrown players for their return to the Champions League after finishing fourth last season.

Lingard has admirers at Spurs and is low-risk as a free transfer, despite a frustrating final season at Old Trafford where he made two Premier League starts and many of his 23 appearances were off the bench.

But he still started the last campaign in the England squad, adding to his 32 caps with games against Andorra where he scored twice. Under Ralf Rangnick in the second half of the season he was mainly used as a substitute as his contract ran down at the club where he has spent his entire career.

During his loan spell at West Ham he went on a run of nine goals in 10 matches to help the club qualify for the Europa League, although he returned to United for the final year of his contract.

He was part of the raft of senior players leaving United as free agents before the era of Erik Ten Hag. The list was headed by Paul Pogba and also included Edinson Cavani, Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic as well as Lingard.