The Athletic: Danny Ings signs new long-term contract, but not for Southampton.

This. We need to get out of our own bubble. Go on F365 and read the article on this. From a non hand-wringing Saints fan perspective Ings is the sort of pro who won’t amble through the last year of his contract

Sometimes some external perspective is needed

 

Yeh! splitter!

 

If he is trying to impress he will need to be scoring regularly.

 

I guess the fear comes from VVD absolutely phoning it in. But he was completely tapped up and had a concrete offer on the table. Nothing short of a major injury was going to stop Liverpool signing him

And bad defensive performances in a team like Southampton can much more easily be blamed on all the players around you. Could be a “only so much VVD can do next Hoedt or Yoshida” type thing

But a big part of Ings’ game is the defensive forward pressing part with the work rate as well as the goals. And indeed the goals often come from the former. So phoning it in is not really likely to be on his agenda

 

At the end of the day they are all professional players with a very limited time to earn maximum wages. Frankly I'm bored with this whole saga and if £25mill offers come in let's just shake hands and move on. Our club is bigger than Danny, yes he's done a good job and maybe we thought that a local lad 'back home' so to speak might behave differently, then that's a very naive thought for anyone connected to the PL. It's money and business through and through, we like to think it's sport but there we are. I'm sure if he stays he'll put some decent shifts in but he'll go and keep a bench warm somewhere else whilst we get on with our season with, hopefully, a fully committed team.

 

If he does go this summer, it's a great example that our best players will always want to go for a bigger pay day and to 'compete at a higher level' if they get the chance, regardless of whether they grew up as massive Saints fans or not.

We should remember that for the next time our best players are rumoured to be off. Just expect them to go.

The only time players will refuse a move because they love the club is when the squad is made up of us lot, and we'd be proper **** then.

 

Could also add that Ings he achieved his “boyhood dream” of playing for Saints. We aren’t exactly a particularly attractive team to be playing for right now (in comparison to a lot of teams in the PL) so it’s understandable if he wants to move on

 

Really interesting to read everyone’s views on this. It’s a complex (and pretty ****e) situation for the club to be in, and Ornstein believes that the club want to keep him for next year, unless a substantial offer comes in.

Best case scenarios under this policy:
1.) We preemptively source his replacement (Armstrong) this year, use next season to bed him in so there’s less pressure for when Ings does eventually part ways. (Do we even have the money for this approach?)
2.) We find ourselves under new ownership / investment next year and are able to buy a new striker with big daddies cash (Lol we can dream)
3.) Big offer comes in of more than £25 million this year and we replace him with someone who does a great job.

All the worst case scenarios involve his knee, Guido Carillo-esque recruitment and relegation.

He came to us as an overpriced, injury-prone one-season-wonder, and he’ll leave us an underpriced, injury-prone, fantastic premier league striker.

 

Perhaps Ings is looking at the team around him? Saints don't have the money to match his ambitions. Even Ralph has told us all, that we are looking at spending no more than £10M on a player, with perhaps stretching to £20M for a special case.
Yeah I know we could hit the jackpot with signing a diamond in the rough, just like Stuart Armstrong, but generally you get what you pay for. In my eyes Southampton FC just want to survive in the league. Just watch Brighton and Palace go and sign the players required to move up the league!
That's just 2 clubs who will leave us in the dust. Next season will be a struggle.

 

Palace probably need 10 players. If they are shopping above our price bracket they will be spending 100m+ this summer

Is that seriously your prediction for them?

Brighton could easily lose their two best players albeit for circa 100m combined. That puts them in a very similar position to us without Ings as they already don’t have anyone to score any goals for them

In order for them to “move up the league” they will need to effectively recruit throughout the spine of their team - CB, CM and Striker

The highlights from their transfers last year seemed to be :

Veltman - injury prone and played out of position when Lamptey was injured
Lallana
Wellbeck

On that evidence what gives you the faith that they will sign the players to move up?

 

Brighton where close to signing a Argentinian international, for around £25M
I read somewhere that Viera will have £90M to spend.
Like it or not, clubs like Leicester, Wolves, Brighton, Palace have money!
**** I hope I am wrong, but this season is going to be a struggle

 

Brighton were actually very good last season, if they perform similarly this year they should finish far higher in the league

 

His house in Horton Heath has been sold for a fair few months now. I'd like City to take him with Delap coming the other way. Very bright looking forward.

 

One of my work colleagues is an Arsenal fan and he says that the Gooner-related board he visits are suggesting that they have been in talks with Ings for a number of weeks about a proposed move. I have no idea how genuine this is but some Arsenal supporters seem to have convinced themselves that this move is going to happen.

 

Only Leicester have real spending money this Summer. The other teams you mention will be working with a budget similar to ours due to the last 15 months.

 

You mean the guy who picked the lower wages of Italy instead ? And that they still need to recruit well if they are lose White and Bissouma. The former seems pretty guaranteed and the latter quite likely

And as per my post - 90m is not going to be enough for palace. And even that is only a rumour

And spending a large fee doesn’t guarantee anything. Surely we should know that better than anyone

Leicester are not a reasonable comparison.

Wolves have a pet agent and financial doping going on. It sucks but there you go. And despite all that they were awful for most of last year and have an unproven manager

 

If they get someone who can score goals. If not they will perform largely the same

 

Thought he wanted to go to a team that are challenging for the league?

 

At the end of the day Saints model is for players to use us as a stepping stone to bigger and better clubs. It’s just where we are in the food chain.
Most of us realise that when a gem comes along, if we get to see them play and develop over 2 - 3 years, the club and the player, have done their jobs.
The worse thing is that we have a couple now who will go for less than their true market value due to only having 12 months left on their contracts.
I have faith in the clubs set up now to do the right thing. People saying we will now get relegated etc is ridiculous, when none of us know what is going on behind the scenes.
Ings last season played in 29 games scoring 12 & assists 4. Think we’d have a pretty decent chance of bringing in 1 if not 2 strikers if we can get half decent money.
In comparison Adams played in 36 games scoring 9 with 5 assists.
We’ll be fine