Liverpool must consider opportunity to re-sign Danny Ings in 2021

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Liverpool have got to consider a move for Danny Ings. The striker reportedly wants to leave Southampton in a hunt for Champions League football.

The Telegraph reports that former Liverpool striker Danny Ings wants to leave Southampton. There’s even a contract offer on the table, they say, but the England striker won’t sign it.

He wants to return to Champions League football – something the Saints have never had.

Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl appeared to confirm this with his comments on Tuesday. “I think if [Ings] wants Champions League football, he scores 10 or 12 more goals we can get there,” he said, per Jeremy Wilson. “Not impossible.”

That’s undoubtedly a blow for them but it could be an opportunity for Liverpool to correct a rare transfer mistake.

Second bite

We recently wrote about Liverpool’s need to find themselves another Ings. Well, how about Danny Ings?

The Reds are the ones who sold him to Southampton, after all, letting him go for £20m after a loan spell. Although, per that initial Telegraph report, it wasn’t just £20m.

Liverpool are due a percentage of any fee Southampton get from a sale. And that’s an interesting weapon for the Reds – they could technically sign him for less than anyone else.

Eurosport say Tottenham Hotspur want Ings, for instance. Well, if Liverpool matched Spurs’ offer, it’d cost them less, given they’d receive a chunk of it back from the sale.

And we can’t really overstate how useful Ings would be in this side. Liverpool lack goals from the bench with their current options – ironically, the ones they have because Ings left.

He’s a player with bags of energy, can finish at the top level, and suits a direct, high-tempo playing style.

That all sounds great even before you consider that he already knows Liverpool’s exact playing style. Ings is essentially a guaranteed success – if he stays injury free.

And that might be the sticking point here. Ings will be 29 in July and has a poor injury record. Given Southampton would likely want a hefty fee – even with that percentage back – it could be too risky.

So we’ll have to wait and see what the Saints want for their 25-goal striker. But if it’s anything reasonable, Ings would be a player we can say would make Liverpool better with some certainty.