Would Saints Supporters Have Danny Ings Back At St Mary's
When Danny Ings left Southampton last summer with very indecent haste, Saints supporters felt betrayed in a way that would not usually be the case when a much loved player leaves the club, but with rumours that Aston Villa are now looking to cut their losses, would we have him back at at St Mary's.
There is no doubt that Saints supporters were upset when Danny Ings left the club last summer, we were prepared for him to go to a big club and perhaps have one last shot at the big time and the Champions League etc, but going to to Aston Villa was not much of a step up from Saints.
Of course there was no doubt they were a bigger club, but truth is in today's game clubs like Villa and Everton have been left behind from being a true power in the Premier League.
Danny Ings went for the "Project" so he said, but having just turned 29 he hardly had a lot of time left for a project, he needed to go to a club that could give him a shot at glory now.
But with the season drawing to a close it hasn't quite turned out the way that the striker had hoped.
Villa endured a poor start to the season and sacked their manager and Ings has found himself down the pecking order at Villa Park, he has started just 19 of the 32 Premier League games he could have played in, come on as sub in another 5 and taken no part in the other 8.
Ings was signed to score goal, but he has managed just 5, one of them a penalty in his first game for the club, indeed after scoring in his second game, he has hit the net just 3 times in the next 8 months, ironically the last of those coming against Saints in our 4-0 defeat at Villa Park, although to be fair I could probably have got a goal that day we were so poor.
This has let to the rumours that Villa are now looking to offload him at a cut price or use him as a makeweight in a deal with Brighton for Yves Bissouma.
But with it looking unlikely that Armando Broja returns to the club next season, Saints will be looking at their options up front for next season and inevitably Ings name will crop up.
Turning 30 in July he will not be a target for one of the bigger clubs, so the likes of Brighton and Saints are obvious links.
One issue though will be wages, Ings went to Villa for around £130,000 a week if the stories from last summer are to be believed, if he goes on a permanent transfer there are going to be no takers at that level.
He would be looking at taking a drop of at least £60 k a week perhaps more given his poor scoring record this season and age, with two years left on his current contract. would he be willing to throw away around £6 million of potential earnings in the next two years.
That makes it likely that if he does go in the summer then it could be out on loan to someone, where a deal could be struck regarding his wages.
So would you welcome Ings back as the Prodigal Son or should we leave him as part of our history.
I'm sure some will feel that he burned his bridges last summer, others will feel that we could do better, but there will be those that think that at the right price, it could be a deal worth doing.
Putting all emotion to one side, how do you feel about a potential return ?
Vote now in our poll using the link below and also add your comments and feelings about the local lad who came back once and could do so again.
https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/284993/would-you-welcom
What to read next:
U's Vs Accrington Match Preview As the round of matches over the festive period draws to a close, we have the visit of Accrington Stanley on that most rare of events in our football history, a Sunday afternoon kick-off. If you filter out play-off and cup games, in the league this accounts for just 25 games since we were formed, seven won, six drawn and 12 lost. As you would imagine, Sunday games are generally focussed around Christmas and the New Year, or more recently, Sky-mandated final games of the season. It’s been a pretty positive holiday schedule for the U’s too, eight points from four games, and with other results often going our way, we’re now just two places and three points outside the play-offs.
U's Vs MK Dons Match Preview Happy New Year U’s fans! After two hard fought 1-1 draws away from home across the festive period we kick off the New Year with a home match against Milton Keynes. Tickets look to be selling well, although not in the West Stand it seems, so should be a decent crowd providing MK bring more than their normal coach load. I know it doesn’t count for anything but the calendar year League Two table has us in fifth with 72 points from 46 matches played so 2025 hasn’t been a bad year to be a U’s fan.
Gillingham Vs U's Match Preview First and foremost, I hope you are all having a pleasant Christmas break relaxing with family and friends, and wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. This will be our final match of 2025, with a trip to Priestfield to face old adversary Gillingham, our second game against them this month and our third this season. This will be our 112th game in all competitions against the Gills, a relationship that started with a Ted Davis U’s side winning 2-0 at Layer Road on 27th August 1938. At the final whistle tomorrow we will also be at the halfway point of the season, so considering at the end of September we were 20th, plenty of optimism for the second half of the season.
Crawley Vs U's Match Preview Merry Christmas U’s fans! Boxing Day in proper football leagues means football matches and the U’s face one of their shortest trips of the season as they venture across the Thames to face creepy Crawley. Crawley’s “stadium” is one of the few grounds I’ve gone away with the U’s (the 3-1 League Cup win back in 2019) and it felt like a ground that should be in the National League South but Crawley have been established in the football league since 2011 with two promotions to League One during that time which is impressive given the relative size of the club. We don’t have a huge history against Crawley Town, with just 24 meetings to date of which Crawley have won 11. In fact since that memorable League Cup win we hadn’t managed to beat Crawley until the, not as memorable but probably more important, 3-2 away win towards the end of the 2023/24 season that went a long way to helping us stay in this division.
U's Vs Newport Match Preview And so, Danny and Nicky enter their second century of games managing the U’s, at home to struggling Newport – let’s hope it starts a bit better than the first century finished. There won’t be many games we score three and lose, trouble is there’ll be even fewer where we concede four and win. That being said, I couldn’t fault the first hour of the Salford game, with the U’s in control of a game against good opposition, and on a typically heavy pitch. Then we kind of fell apart, certainly defensively, helped in no small part by a masterclass from ex-U’s Luke Garbutt (how is he only in League 2?). Credit must also go to 250+ of the faithful, a long trip starting at stupid o’clock – they deserved more than that for their support.