According to The London Evening Standard, Southampton consider Tottenham Hotspur the last Premier League club they would do business with amid interest in Danny Ings.
It’s claimed that Southampton’s relations with Tottenham have ‘soured’ after a bad experience during Spurs’ pursuit of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg last summer.
Hojbjerg did join Tottenham, and Southampton signed Kyle Walker-Peters from Spurs as part of the deal, but Southampton seemingly didn’t like negotiating with Daniel Levy.
Tottenham tried to turn Hojbjerg’s head early in the process and then dragged out paying the fee wanted by the Saints, and Southampton don’t want to do it again.
Tottenham do want to raid the Saints again, this time targeting striker Danny Ings as Nuno Espirito Santo wants to pair him with Harry Kane.
Branded ‘outstanding’ by Jurgen Klopp, Ings is thought to be a top priority for Tottenham this summer.
However, Southampton’s stance will make it difficult for Tottenham to get such a deal done, and that could be a huge boost for West Ham United.
90Min report that West Ham have been contacted by representatives working for Ings, who fancies leaving Southampton with just one year left on his deal.
West Ham have Europa League football and Tottenham don’t, whilst Southampton don’t hate dealing West Ham.
Nuno may love the idea of Kane and Ings up front together at Tottenham, but the pursuit to sign him looks unlikely to pay off – and he could even head to London rivals West Ham instead.
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