What was a week or so ago just quiet contract negotiations between Southampton & Danny Ings have suddenly become media madness and guess what club are right in the middle ? Yes Tottenham Hotspur and their fans on social media.

The truth is that Danny Ings and Saints are not a million miles away on the striker signing a new deal, there are some sticking points, but neither side seemed too bothered.

Ings like any top player will look for the best deal for himself and his career, both financially and in footballing terms.

Turning 29 in the summer he will be well aware that this will be an important contract, the last big one of his career and he needs to get it right.

Likewise Saints as well have to balance up the players worth to the team, football club's these days know that worth and Saints have the dilemma that with a strategy based on developing players and making a huge profit and repeating the exercise, that this for them is also a deal they also need to get right.

They have to balance out cashing in on Ings now and having the money to buy a replacement, or like Leicester have found with Jamie Vardy, seeing him end his career at the club, but with no sell on value in the next year or so they will have to replace him, but where will they get the money to do that.

This all went on quietly behind the scenes, until the opening of the transfer silly season a few weeks ago and suddenly it has gone mad, it starts with a few rumours from agents trying to stir up the pot and get a few deals done in a stagnant market and then social media hits in and suddenly boom you cant move for stories about twitter tweets or whatever they are called from Spurs fans saying "get it done Levy"

Yesterday Newsnow carried around 100 links to stories on the internet about Danny Ings transfer saga, over half of these were about Danny Ings, strangely only two clubs were linked, Tottenham Hotspur and bizarrely half a dozen saying West Ham were interested.

But the real frenzy were the Spurs ones, of the 50 or so links, very few were actually from mainstream media sources, the rest were emanating from either smaller footballing websites or Spurs fan sites, many of which were just rehashing old twitter headlines.

By late afternoon the social media and fan site frenzy had abated and most of the stories after 5pm were about Saints FA Cup tie with Arsenal on Saturday.

But for a while it felt like Danny Ings was demanding a move to Spurs as their fans bombarded social media we should not be surprised this is what happened last year with Pierre Emile Hojbjerg, it has happened in the past with Victor Wanyama and it would have happened back in 1992 when they prised Neil Ruddock from us in controversial circumstances, but back then all they had were carrier pigeons.

The stories carry very little substance, there are no direct quotes from Danny Ings, all of them pick up little quotes from the past and take them out of context, so if Danny Ings said 18 months ago he was keen to play Champions League football with Saints, then that quote is put out now as if he said it yesterday, leaving out the "with Saints" bit of course.

When you take a closer look you find that aside from Spurs and a fleeting mention of West Ham, there is no news of any another club being interested, over the past week, there has been the odd story usually from an ex player trying to build his media profile saying that Ings would be a good fit for Liverpool/Arsenal/ Chelsea depending on who the ex player used to play for, but the main stream media is making no claims about being a club being interested, nor for that matter have their supporters taken up the clarion call as Spurs supporters seem to do whenever they are linked with a player.

What isn't being asked though is the question of how Spurs will pay for Ings ? The truth is in this current situation, Premier League football clubs have little income, as I have often said the money from the Premier League and TV , is big but every club gets it, Spurs would have earned only around £10 million more than Saints last season in Premier League prize money and around £30 million in TV money.

That sounds a lot but in reality is quite a small gap, it means they can sign one player for £40 million rather than the £20 million we can go up to.

I ran through all this in a story a couple of weeks ago, you can read this via the link below.

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/news/53879/why-premier-league

The money from other revenue streams is what differentiates the so called Big Six clubs from the rest these days and with fans not allowed in stadiums, not just for games but other useages such as gigs, conferences and the everyday use some stadiums get, all clubs will struggle to find money in this window and indeed the summer.

Tottenham reportably have £852 million of debt secured on their stadium, including £215 million of interest, yet they still continue to borrow as they did when they took £175 million from the Government back in the summer.

Spurs more than most are going to struggle, to have any chance of getting the deal done they will need to sell, but who has the money to buy any of their assets ? their fans would go up in arms if they sold Kane or Son especially at the price they would have to sell him at and if they stay were does Ings fit into the plans, would he be happy at being third choice striker coming off the bench.

As usual Spurs are doing things in their own unique way, "Daniel Levy Shrewdness" was one fan based website headline taken from a twitter feed, fans of other clubs especially Saints would describe it in far stronger and less flattering terms having experienced it.

The one thing that will be different this year is the level of transfer fees, club's will have to cut their cloth to match the loss of income over the last year and also repaying debts accrued.

This means transfer fees will drop, a player that cost £30 million a couple of years ago will now be going at £20 million perhaps even £15 million, wages will also drop as the big clubs find themselves unable to off load high earners who want to go, but are unwilling to take a pay cut.

The very top clubs will have the money, in England that means only Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City, perhaps Chelsea if Abramovich is still interested, but outside of those the rest are in the same boat.

So Saints should not be scared of Danny Ings transfer rumours or indeed a release clause in his contract if they can't agree it, it is probably better to just let him run down his contract and let him go for nothing.

As I say football clubs know the value of a player, in Ings case the difference he makes to us per goal, if Spurs offer a derisory £10 million say in the summer, he is worth more than that in position prize money so keep him.

At age 30 at the end of his contract we would not get much more than that anyway to be precise.

Photo: Action Images

wessexman added 10:53 - Jan 22 The article makes sense but the author has overlooked one fact. While the rest of us in the real world are re-assessing our finances in a post Covid world ( if there is even going to be such a thing ) it would seem Football, especially in the upper echelons have not made a serious attempt to even look at their financial positions . Ings knows there will be a club out there which is willing to stretch their budget that much more.....never mind Covid, never mind his fitness record. The much needed and overdue reality check has not hit football ......unfortunately.

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WestSussexSaint added 11:24 - Jan 22 There was really good article on The Athletic earlier this week which I can’t replicate here as it is a subscription service but the key points were: Danny Ings is very happy playing his football at Saints Money is not the issue for either side although the deal on the table would make Ings the highest paid player at the club The key sticking point is Ings desire to insert a release clause in committing Saints to sell if another club meets the contracted valuation (and assuming Ings wants to join that club) Reason for the release clause is simply that without it this is essentially allowing Saints full control of the what is likely to be the rest of Danny’s top flight career. If Danny continues to progress and get better then he still would like the opportunity to allow another top 6 club to come in for him. The principal of the release clause isn’t actually an issue for Saints but the release transfer value is. Saints want to put a high value in. Don’t know how much but you would imagine it would be north of £50m. Danny’s agent is wanting a much lower value so as to not put off other clubs. Tough call but ultimately If Saints want Ings to sign then they will probably have to swallow a release clause and at a lower level than their current valuation otherwise he will either run down his contract or have to be sold in the summer at a value which is likely to be lower that the release clause amount anyway.

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underweststand added 11:48 - Jan 22 As you stated above Nick, what was a small discussion point has become potential big headlines with the suggestion that Saints need to sell, as they reported a loss in income. At this point, I think a lot of Prem. sides would be glad to report a loss of... ONLY £ 76 million considering the present state of the economy in World football. As for Danny Ings himself, he (seems) to be happy with the idea of playing for his home town side, but naturally the chance of playing CL football is a real long shot with Saints. Any side who buys him for ...only £40 million, would be getting a bargain - even in these Covid times. It's a shame for Danny that he had two such serious "career-threatening" injuries in the past (but to be fair ) Covid is not "an injury", but since he has been on-form with Saints his goal/games ratio is on a par with any top striker in Europe. I'm sure he would want to get real recognition and play at the highest level he can, but Saints cannot afford to let him go at a "knock-down price" and I hope there is common ground for a guaranteed " release fee" that can be amicably agreed - if he does move.

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SaintPaulVW added 12:00 - Jan 22 I think the problem is there is very little transfer activity atm so it's basically silly season as journalists magnify any story for clicks. If you can put Liverpool, MU, Arsenal, Spurs in a single story...imagine the worldwide audience you can hit.
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FrankSaint added 12:02 - Jan 22 Dean Richards RIP could be another example of Spurs trying to poach our players on the cheap.
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DellBoyWally added 12:34 - Jan 22 Someone called Nathan Murphy was opining on DIngs returning to Liverpool but, amazingly, said this was probably not going to happen!!! Bet he had a lot of research, mind bending and soul searching to come up with that! Then to ruin all his hard work stated categorically that DIngs' preferred destination is Man Utd! Where'd he get that from? I guess he must have a direct line to DIngs, chat over things. Oh, and by the way Nate, I wanna go to Man Utd but don't tell anyone. Well, sneak it in somewhere, I can use it as Levyage!!!!!!!!

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Ali_Diarea added 20:07 - Jan 22 I think he’ll bide his time and see what offers come in for him in the summer. Why sign a contract now with a release clause that may put some teams off, when he could just wait 6 months when his transfer value will be lower. Also why do people assume he would be on the bench at Spuds, they have played 3 strikers many times already this season. I hope I’m wrong, but this does feel like the sort of deal that Levy would love to do.

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NewburySaint added 22:01 - Jan 22 If neither side can agree on a new contract I wouldn’t sell him for a cut price fee in either of the next 2 windows, not inc. this 1, because, as Nick also alludes to, he would be worth more to us in his performances, as long as he stays injury free, than any derisory transfer fee we may get.
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