Jesse Lingard wants to tell his story. Joined by his brother, Louie Scott, and Alexandros Alexiadis, coach of Greece's Under 17s, the trio are here to explain 'Project Jesse 2.0'. It was March 2020 when they masterminded a plan to resurrect not only Lingard the player, but Jesse the person. He was in a dark place.
There is only so much social media abuse a man can take and his season had amounted to just two appearances for Manchester United. He didn't want to leave his home for fear of being recognised and considered a move to China or Saudi Arabia, away from that spotlight of scrutiny.
Thankfully, with Louie and Alex's support, he remained in England, where a loan move to West Ham saw the '2.0' project pay off.
Here, Sportsmail's Jamie Redknapp speaks exclusively to the England international as he enters a new season in which he intends to show United what they've been missing. Kieran Gill listened in...
Jesse Lingard (pictured above) has opened up to Sportsmail about his mental health struggles
Lingard, 28, admitted he turned to drink to help cope with fierce social media abuse online
Lingard spoke with Sportsmail's Jamie Redknapp ahead of the new season
JESSE: My confidence was shot. You can be that happy-go-lucky guy, bouncing around the training ground, but deep down you're wearing that smile as a mask.
I wasn't playing so I was down. Luckily I had Louie sending me videos from my Under 21 days for United and England. He was trying to make me realise what a good player I'd been.
'Watch this! Watch this!' So I did and thought, 'You know what? I can't throw this away'. It gave me confidence, and that first lockdown gave me a chance to re-evaluate what I wanted in life.
JAMIE: What was it like seeing your brother this way, Louie?
LOUIE: I've watched this kid all my life. There were matches where I had to leave because I knew he wasn't right and I felt helpless. You know when you see a boxer on his last legs, ready to be knocked out? That's what I was seeing and at the same time, the vultures came for him.
Brother Louie Scott (right) and coach Alexandros Alexiadis (centre) planned his comeback
They were picking away. There was a lot of online abuse. I don't look at Jesse as someone to analyse, or someone who needs a new contract. I'm his big brother. I needed to make sure this kid could go on and live his life. He didn't want to go fill up his car with petrol as he didn't want to go out. I felt powerless.
JESSE: I was like that on the pitch. The game was passing me by. I felt like I wasn't there. I was bottling things up and not telling anyone what was going on.
But I remember watching one of the first videos Louie sent me. I rang him straight away and was like, 'Yo! Let's go!' I decided I wasn't just going to sit around. I told him: 'I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to fight and we're going to do it.'
LOUIE: It was a video of him playing for United's Under 21s. He picks up the ball, beats two players, cuts in and whips it just over the top corner. This kid was 4ft 5in in the Under 21s, taking on opponents who were 6ft, beating them, creating.
When I saw that, compared to what he was doing in the United first team, it was chalk and cheese. So it was about hitting that reset button. That's why I was sending him those videos: to remind him of what he could do.
Project Jesse 2.0 helped Lingard's wellbeing
Louie used this whiteboard as motivation
JAMIE: You got so much stick for your 'JLingz' clothing brand, as if you were the first footballer to invest in a venture.
JESSE: I remember the weekend I launched my brand (in December 2018). We beat Fulham. Then the following weekend, we lose away to Liverpool. Suddenly it was: 'Why did you launch your brand the week before such a big game?'
It had nothing to do with that. That was never going to affect my performance. I don't run the brand. I'm not packing clothes to ship out before a game.
LOUIE: 'He's got a brand, he's distracted…' I do all of that! I take care of the brand side of things. That's not Jesse's job. We decided not to say anything. We left it and agreed one day we'd say our piece.
I'm telling you right now: you will not find a player from all of Jesse's years at United who runs more than him. Talent doesn't make you run 12km a game. It comes from within. He is a total professional.
JESSE: At my lowest point, I was thinking, 'I need to get away from England'. Not to Spain, but to China or Saudi Arabia, somewhere to stay out of the limelight and only concentrate on football.
When lockdown came, I wanted to use that to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together and then show people what I could do.
We had Alex on board and he was giving me an analysis of every upcoming opponent of United's, just in case I played. I didn't get the game time I wanted but eventually we got the move to West Ham and that was perfect.
ALEX: Just before Jesse went out on loan, I asked Louie: 'Do you believe your brother will play for England again?' I already knew the answer. It was yes. But the point was to give them that extra motivation and a future target. It was a new start. I saw that Jesse and Louie wanted to succeed and that was the point.
JAMIE: Two decades ago, we had a player at Liverpool called Igor Biscan and he decided to bring in his own fitness coach. Some of the lads were saying, 'What is he doing?' Now I realise it was a glimpse into the
