Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford's behaviour was criticised
Jesse Lingard has hit back after a fan 'shambolically' accused him of 'destroying the culture' at Manchester United alongside former team-mates Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba.
Lingard, 32, left the Red Devils in 2022 after more than two decades with his boyhood club and now plays his football in South Korea. The midfielder's time in the United first-team coincided with their fall from grace following legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.
Routinely criticised for his perceived carefree attitude outside of matches, close friends Lingard and Pogba often posted videos of themselves dancing in the changing room. The pair came through United's academy together and in 2015, Rashford followed.
None of them were able to prevent United's slide and all three stars now play for different clubs, with Rashford recently joining Aston Villa in a loan deal. On Wednesday, Lingard - who captains K-League giants Seoul - had been alerted to a post on X from December, criticising the trio.
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"Him, Pogba and Rashford destroyed the culture even [Wayne] Rooney admitted," the fan claimed. "He was let have his own culture with those other 2 vultures after Sir Alex left."
In response, Lingard asked: "Please explain how me paul and Marcus destroyed Manchester United’s culture?" When another supporter backed him, the 32-time England international replied: "Lool we was just enjoying our life of we played for biggest club in the world of course we made mistakes and we learn but we gonna have fun and smile and dance."
Fans also pointed out that Rooney hadn't made such an accusation. On an episode of his podcast in October, ex-United defender Rio Ferdinand revealed that in 2017, he phoned then-captain Rooney after seeing a video of Lingard and Pogba dancing after training when the Red Devils were sixth in the Premier League table.
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"I'll tell you when it changed, well I think from the outside and you can correct me if I'm wrong," Ferdinand said to former United team-mate Phil Jones. "I rang Wazza [Rooney] when I saw Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard dancing when we were sixth in the league on Instagram. I rang Wazza, and said, 'What is going on here? How are you allowing this?'
"And he said, 'You can't say nothing, it's not the same anymore'. He said, 'It's not only Jesse and Paul, there's a load of them all together who would all be looking at me like I'm mad if I said anything'."
Quickly interjecting, Jones asked: "Can you imagine that happening in the dressing room we were in?! You would get torched."
Lingard is now well away from Old Trafford, enjoying life in Seoul after joining the South Korean club a year ago. In the replies, a fan had asked: "Jesse broski we love you forever… but is Korea becoming that dead you gotta beef with nobodies? Cup final winner and a cult hero keep your head up son."
Lingard replied: "Haha nah Korea lit bro I love it, I don't even bite ever I never really read comments but had to reply to that shambolic accusation."
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