Vickery has told talkSPORT: “He’s in talks with a club called Remo, which means rowing loads of the big Brazilian clubs started life as rowing clubs. Anyway, it is a little bit left field.
“Remo are right up in the north of Brazil, Belem, which is actually the Portuguese translation of Bethlehem. There was once a Brazilian player who went to play there, and he said, ‘I am so honoured to be playing in the very place where [Jesus] Christ was born.’ And it had to be explained that that really wasn’t the case.
“But anyway, what I wonder is going on here, because Remo are newly promoted and everyone expects them to go straight back down. Three rounds into the Brazilian championship, they’ve got two draws and a defeat. It’s a hard slog that you’re going there, Jesse Lingard. If you’re going to go there, it’s a hard slog. First, because you’re going to be battling against relegation all year.
“Secondly, because look at the map. Now, the heartland of Brazilian football is in the southeast. Rio, Sao Paulo, and Belo Horizonte. Remo, where they are, almost every away game is like a four-hour plane journey. Brazil is vast. So there are easier ways to earn your money than signing for Remo.
“What I wonder, this is putting on my Dick Dastardly and his snickering hound hat, because what I would do in the circumstances is draw the negotiation out a little bit, see if anyone else comes through. Maybe there’ll be more Brazilian clubs…That’s what I would do in his situation.”