Southampton: Danny Ings wants move to Champions League club

Recent quotes from Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl have suggested that there has been no breakthrough in contract talks with star man Danny Ings and now more has been revealed on the situation.

A report from reliable and renowned journalist Sam Wallace in the Telegraph has confirmed Ings has set his sights on a return to a club playing in the Champions League in a bid to play at the very top level in the prime of his career.

Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City are all loosely mentioned as potentially being on the lookout for a striker of Ings’ calibre in the summer.

As Wallace notes, his stalling on Saints’ contract offer is sending out signals to some of the bigger Premier League clubs ahead of what could be a tricky summer transfer window for Saints.

Record-breaking Southampton contract offer “agreed” with Ings

28-year-old Ings will be into the final year of his current deal at St Mary’s in June and has proven himself to be one of the best strikers in England after scoring 40 goals in 81 times for Saints since his arrival in 2018.

Saints have offered Ings a four-year contract that will make him the highest paid player in their history and the striker signing to stay on at St Mary’s is still not off the cards completely. Sam Wallace confirms in his report that terms are agreed and the player’s decision is all that remains.

He signed with Saints from Liverpool for a fee that reached around £20m and has become a key part of the team that Ralph Hasenhuttl has built on the South Coast.

Key men such as James Ward-Prowse, Jan Bednarek, Stuart Armstrong, Oriol Romeu and Hasenhuttl himself have already signed new terms to stay on – Ings joining them would be a huge signal of intent from Saints and truly move them into a new era.

After an initial start to the 2020/21 season that saw them in the top four and even top for a while, Saints have dropped to ninth in the Premier League table at the time of writing. Congestion in the top-half means that they are still in with a chance of European qualification themselves.

Given their past record of selling players and rebuilding teams, Saints will be preparing for all eventualities and will have other targets lined up as replacements.