Joe Thomlinson, who works as a presenter for Sky Sports and Football Daily, spent some time talking about the possibility of Southampton centre-forward Danny Ings departing from St. Mary’s during a recent video for the Football Daily YouTube channel.
This comes after Ings, who has got just over a year remaining on his deal with the Saints, has been linked with a move to Southampton’s Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur of late.
It may not come as a massive surprise that the 28-year-old is said to be attracting interest from elsewhere, given that he’s been in inspired form since making his move to Southampton permanently in the summer of 2019.
The England international ended the 2019/20 season as the joint-second-highest goalscorer in the Premier League, netting 22 of the Saints’ 51 league goals, while only nine players have scored more goals than he has (seven) in his 13 top-flight appearances for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side this term.
On the topic of Ings potentially leaving Southampton, Thomlinson shared that while this would be a huge blow for the Saints, he doesn’t think anyone could hold it against the ex-Liverpool man if he were yearning for bigger and better things, saying:
“This would just be horrendous, a hammer-blow for Southampton – a sledgehammer of blows, really, for Ralph Hasenhuttl, if Danny Ings was to leave.
“It isn’t going to be in January, first and foremost, let’s calm down, if he’s going to leave, it’ll be in the summer.
“No one would begrudge him a move, would they? He’s 28, this is going to be his last major contract, why not have one more shot at Champions League football? I think fair play to him for having the ambition to go, ‘I want one more shot at glory,’ because he’s probably not going to win titles at Southampton.”
Will Ings sign a new deal at Southampton?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Thomlinson had to say about Ings’ potential departure from Southampton…
Southampton have failed to finish in the top half of the Premier League in any of the last three campaigns, while Spurs, who are allegedly interested in signing Ings, have finished in one of the Premier League’s top-six places in each of the last 11 seasons, so perhaps it’s understandable if Ings were tempted by a move to the Lilywhites in the hope of having a better chance of winning a trophy or playing in Europe with the north London club than he has got at Southampton, as Thomlinson suggested would be the case.
Ings has undoubtedly been a key man for the Saints over the last season and a half and so, if that is how he feels, then perhaps Thomlinson is right in saying that nobody should hold it against him if he did see a move to Tottenham as something that could advance his career, given how well he has performed for Hasenhuttl’s side.
However, the Saints currently sit just four points behind Spurs on the Premier League table, while the club has been making steady progress and are now said to be ‘thriving’ under Hasenhuttl, so if Southampton do want to keep the 28-year-old frontman around for another few years, all hope may not be lost for them, as there are plenty of signs that the future is bright at St. Mary’s and perhaps that, combined with the fact that Ings has clearly been a good fit for the club, could persuade the ex-Liverpool man to stay.