Danny Ings has 11 goals in 15 Premier League starts for Southampton – imagine what he could have achieved at Crystal Palace?
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that he regrets missing out on Danny Ings when the in-form striker joined Southampton instead for £18 million, speaking to The Standard.
A man who was handed his England debut by Hodgson in 2015 is in the form of his life, four years on.
Ings has plundered an impressive 11 goals in 15 Premier League starts this season, including a clinical brace during The Saints’ 3-1 win away at relegation rivals Aston Villa a few days before Christmas.
Crystal Palace, whose top scorer has just five to his name thus far, can only dream of relying upon a penalty box poacher like Ings right now with Hodgson rueing their failure to snap him up when his injury-hit spell at Liverpool came to an end during the summer of 2018.
“I don’t know if I have forgiven him for not coming to us!” said Hodgson, who will be coming up against Ings on Saturday when Palace travel to St Mary’s.
“I have still got a bee in my bonnet about that one! He is a natural goalscorer and added to that he is a hard worker.”
Ings looked set to build on his England debut against Lithuania in October 2015 but a series of long-standing injury problems mean he still has just the single cap on his mantelpiece.
But, at the age of just 27, Ings is now approaching the prime of his career and, after putting those fitness problems behind him, there is no reason to believe that he cannot force his way into Gareth Southgate’s plans for the first time with the European Championships looming on the horizon.
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