Reports suggest Southampton will rival Crystal Palace for the Liverpool striker before the transfer deadline.
Liverpool remain hopeful of selling Danny Ings for their reported asking price of £20million before the end of the transfer window, according to the Evening Standard, with Crystal Palace and Southampton leading the chase.
That kind of money for a player who has been regularly injured over the past three years is certainly a risk for any side.
Ings has played less than ten Premier League games since a serious knee injury in late 2016 and has managed just a single goal.
But the player certainly has quality; Ings’ 11 goals in his debut Premier League season with Burnley back in 14/15 showed that and, while he has been unable to kick on thus far, that was a great total for a 22-year-old and proves his ability.
His injuries make the move a risk but Southampton shouldn’t be deterred. They need a striker – one who knows how to finish – and they are getting dangerously close to not sorting their number one problem of last season.
Ings can score goals when he is fit and the Saints certainly know how to create chances – no one outside of the top six created more opportunities than Southampton – but their four strikers managed just 14 goals between them.
That is an enormous part of why they failed to pick up back-to-back wins all season and avoided relegation by just one place.
Southampton badly need a striker, and Ings represents their only realistic opportunity of finding one before the deadline that is experienced in the Premier League and knows how to score goals. He is a risk, but one they surely need to take.
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