Former Manchester United strikers, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen, have told winger, Jesse Lingard, to leave Old Trafford straight away to save his career.
Berbatov and Owen said this ahead of Man United’s away Premier League tie with Burnley on Tuesday.
Lingard made just his third appearance of the season for Man United in their FA Cup third round 1-0 victory against Watford on Saturday.
The England international has not featured at all in either the Premier League or Champions League this season for Man United.
The 28-year-old has been linked with a move away to Newcastle United this January transfer window and Berbatov believes it would be Lingard’s best interests to move on, adding that his time at the Red Devils is up.
“Honestly, his [Jesse Lingard’s] time is up,” Berbatov told Stadium Astro.
“He’s not playing. He had his chances to shine, to prove how good he is, how good he can be. It shows that, for the moment, Ole [Solskjaer] does not trust him enough to play him.
“And honestly he doesn’t have anywhere to play in the team right now. ‘So when you’ve been so long in one team and, coming to 28 [years old], you have to look back and say, “Did I achieve enough? Am I happy with what I have done here? Is my time up?” ‘So I think he needs to move, he needs to go somewhere else to play.”
On his part, Owen said, “He came through the ranks when me and Berba were in the team, we saw his development, and he’s got to a stage now where he’s a bit older and should be playing regularly in a team now at his age.
“If it was me, and I’d had all that time at Manchester United, I’d probably go and try to play a bit more regularly.”