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

Or his agent wants a bigger fee.

 

I suggest shooting his agent and lobbing him off the Itchen Bridge

 

Sure. The club are going to publicly pressure, the player is going to hold out as long as possible to see if they can get a better offer. This is it and the way it has been and will always be.

We won’t sell him in January though. If he leaves in the summer it will be for a good fee (he’s also going to be 29 next summer, with two dodgy knees) and then we can...SIGN. PATSON. DAKA.

(I know I’m slightly obsessed with him and it may be a signing beyond our reach right now but he’s such a perfect fit. A hard pressing forward at an RB club, playing a similar style, with bags of goals and an absolute monster 1%er athlete)

 

Would you like some help?

 

Couldn't we suspend him from the bridge by his bollocks instead of just throwing him over?

 

The Ralph interview has scared me, for him to talk about this in public is bad news. We all know how this normally ends.

I'll be honest, we need to pay him whatever the hell he wants. Relegation would cost more than a contract, and he is completely irreplaceable to us. If we have offered a huge amount and he still isn't interested, then fair enough, but strikers are very difficult to find

 

Spurs would be a ridiculous move and Danny must know that. Unless we are being super-tight, then he wouldn't earn that much more on the spurs bench. He would basically be signing away his international and club career in exchange for playing cup games and earning an extra 10% on his wage.

It would only make sense if Spurs sold Kane and Ings replaced him, which doesn't look likely.

Give him what he wants, make him our best ever paid player by a long way on a long deal. His goals are worth more to us than we would ever pay in wages.

 

Paying him "whatever" he wants might not matter if he wants a move.

 

Depends on the motivation for the move - if it is to Spurs then it is indeed for money. Unless he prefers the idea of seeing out his playing career sitting on the bench at a big club more than being the star man at his boyhood club - which we know is unlikely (he left liverpool despite them wanting him as back up)

 

Paying him what he wants just opens the door for others to demand the same. It’s not the Southampton way everyone else - including Ralph - has bought into. We have a limit that we must stick to. Too easy to say pay him whatever he wants when it’s not our money!

It is simply not worth making any player feel he is somehow better than the others. Our best times have always been when we don’t have any fancy Dans (no pun intended) but a team where the overall skill exceeds the sum of its parts.

 

Is there any actual news about this or is it all from that Hampshire live article?

 

And when they score 22 league goals in one season they can earn the same.

Why worry about making Ings feel as if he is better than any other player, when, you know, he is better than any other player.

 

Woah , hold on there Libby. Let’s not go looking for some substantial evidence when we’re bobbing along towards full on meltdown.

 

Not really just Ralph saying he hopes he signs a new deal.

Danny Ings: Ralph Hasenhuttl urges Southampton striker to sign new contract | Football News | Sky Sports

 

Sky sports interview with Ralph.

 

If we sign him into a high value, career ending type of deal, it means we can’t sell him for a big fee and replace him with a younger player on less wages. We might not like that approach, but what we want is not even close to being part of the equation here. He’s going to be 30 at the end of his current deal. I would love to keep him but there’s probably younger forwards that they’d be happy to spend less money on.

While we’re not getting significant new investment there will always be a need for Southampton to cash out on players at or just over their peak in order to regenerate the squad. Especially if they are making demands that would trash the wage structure. It’s a really difficult one to make a choice on and they risk getting hammered either way. They’ll try to keep him but there will be a limit, there has to be. Maybe close to what he’ll get if he went to Spurs but their wages are enormous, they spend around £100m more than us on salary. Most of their team is on significantly more than ours.

I don’t know why people think he’s only a bench warmer there. They literally have one out and out forward who has to play about 70 games a season otherwise they can’t win. He’d get plenty of chances.

 

I'm sorry but I completely disagree. The way he's been playing to sign a younger player with similar numbers to Ings will cost an absolute fortune. There's no sign of Ings slowing down so the risk to Saints is minimal. The wages Danny would be on will cost less than a replacement.

 

Wherever he goes - and hopefully that's nowhere - he's not going to be a benchwarmer, he's going to get plenty of game time. He could go to City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Man Utd. He'd get games at all those clubs, if he stays fit.

 

Danny has realised that he is a hot property and has reached the point of one last big/decent move....I think he has probably surprised himself with his return to form. Ralph has apparently warned him to be careful about this decision....I know many are taking this in a totally negative way, but I took heart from RH thinking that we may still be his best choice...as I took it as a compliment to Saints and (with some straw clutching) that Ralph likes it here.

And no, I don't think we should give him everything he wants...we have a wage structure, so put him at the top plus a small % by all means, but no player is priceless. We are a sensibly run team (apart from the recent chaotic period)....throwing money at players doesn't always work.

 

Hasenhuttl interview on sky. Saying he hopes ings doesn't make the wrong choice etc.

I just think it must be quite desperate for him to start making the negotiation public