Jesse Lingard has been getting it from all angles on social media for a video he shared on Snapchat with Marcus Rashford and some of his mates on holiday.
While I can see why the footage has left so many annoyed, I don’t care about what he gets up to in his private life as long as it’s not putting him or others at risk of harm.
The bottom line is Lingard isn’t performing on the pitch, but if he was I think people would be less outraged by his antics on social media.
NEXT: Solskjaer furious at Jesse Lingard after controversial social media post
Drivetime presenter on talkSPORT Adrian Durham is not in agreement with United fans lashing out at Lingard for the video, which featured quite a bit of bad language.
And he sent a message to the ‘hypocritical’ United supporters who have been offended by his behaviour, saying: ‘Don’t pretend Ryan Giggs was an angel’.
It’s always easy to take the moral high ground but Giggs got away with more because fans couldn’t be annoyed by his output on the pitch. I invest an interest in football and footballers, not their private lives. I could still find what they do appalling – but leave that stuff to people to read gossip mags.
Moreover, in the clip, Lingard appears to brag about romping in his hotel room, while one of his mates is pretending to have sex in the bed.
The Drivetime host said, as per talkSPORT: “I don’t like the videos, but I’m not going to jump on this bandwagon of hate for Jesse Lingard just because he’s having a good time and people might not like something about his videos.
“I think it’s all a little bit hypocritical.
“Let’s not try and make out that Ryan Giggs was a total angel and never did anything wrong in his personal and professional life, ever. COME ON!
“Because he was such a brilliant, brilliant Man United player, was he getting hammered for it? No! Have fans forgiven everything? Of course, because he was so brilliant for them.
“If Lingard was that brilliant, this wouldn’t be a story, would it? Let’s face it, it’s sheer hypocrisy from a lot of people.
“I heard Ian Holloway talk about how Fergie ran a tight ship, but they weren’t all angels; there was a massive drinking culture at Manchester United, but there was just no social media then. There were no videos.
“There are all sorts of things that went on back in the day that because there were no videos on phones, people got away with stuff because it wasn’t made public.
“Otherwise, who knows? Some of them there could have been in videos that led to the end of their careers, disgraced them, or might have got them some help they might have needed a little bit sooner.
“Jesse Lingard is 26, he does what he wants and I don’t think it’s so offensive that people have to be seriously offended by it.
“Maybe somebody at United might just say, ‘make sure you know what you’re doing’, that kind of thing, but that’s the level.
“There should be no punishment.
“I’ve heard people say he should be on the transfer list – what the hell is that about?
“If you’re offended by it, don’t follow him on social media and don’t watch it.
“I cannot see a big, big problem here.”
“If you’re offended by it, don’t follow him and don’t watch it on social media!” 🤷♂️
“I can’t see a big problem here.”
“People say Fergie ran a tight ship, all sorts of things went on at Man Utd.”@talkSPORTDrive defends Jesse Lingard over *that* social media video. pic.twitter.com/7dvQ46hoAa
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) June 20, 2019
