West Ham’s pursuit of yet another new striker has hit a roadblock due to Danny Ings’ reluctance to accept a pay cut.
The club has been actively seeking to bolster our attacking options but has been hindered by the Englishman’s unwillingness to compromise on his wage demands. With Ings entering the final year of his contract, West Ham face a difficult decision regarding the striker’s future.
The Hammers’ desire to bring in fresh attacking talent has been evident this summer, with the signings of Niclas Fullkrug, Crysencio Summerville and Luis Guilherme. However, the club’s ability to further strengthen their forward line is contingent on offloading players like the £120k per week Ings.
Another bid for Aston Villa’s Jhon Durn has not been ruled out but the club have made it clear to C&H that strikers must be offloaded first. As mentioned earlier today, Ings was offered the chance to resurrect his career at Southampton but spurned the chance.
It is becoming increasingly evident that manager Julen Lopetegui will offer little game-time to the former Liverpool forward and it would be a huge surprise if he featured in the pre-season finale against Celta Vigo at The London Stadium.
Ings can’t play in the lone role up front, especially in a team which has little possession.
That is no longer the case. He’s an intelligent player and a good finisher. While we are used to wishing for a pacey centreforward to come of the bench to get us back into games, if we are dominating possession and he has Fullkrug upfront to feed off, it could be that Danny Ings is exactly what we need off the bench next season when we can’t force the ball into the net.
He was barely given a chance under Moyes. Last season against Burnley he got half a game and was man of the match… then didn’t get a sniff for the rest of the season. With the right support on the pitch and a different playing style he may just turn out to be a very useful member of the squad. I’d love to see how he feeds off the big german – I think they could potentially link up very well.
Lastly, having a player who loves playing for the club, always gives it his best and doesn’t throw his toys out of the pram when he doesn’t get picked… those are qualities that we used to value.
Spot on Cris
While we all welcome a change of playing style, I believe that it will be some time before we are in a position as a unit to be dominating possession in the Premier League. We are not going to turn into Brighton or Man City overnight or over the course of a few weeks of preseason and command 70% possession of the football. Ings is finished imo. It’s excruciating watching him cover the grass, it’s like he’s running on sand. If he can be persuaded to take a pay cut and secure a move, brilliant. If not I can’t see him getting many minutes for the rest of his West Ham career.
Why should he take a pay cut? He has a perfectly valid contract, doubt anyone would in his position or in real life. If we really want rid, subsidise his wages for the next year if he goes somewhere but they’re offering less. Not his fault we offered him so much
Why are you showing him in a villa kit . Im sure he plays for us . I agree with you steve .
Another waste of screen time and effort. I have to agree with Cris, in fact his comment was better than Simon’s rambling. It was well thought out, astute and factual. Also not sure why you are blaming Danny Ings for us not being able to invest in another striker, or where you got the idea he will be offered little game time. So far in pre-season he has been very decent. But fore-thought and accuracy never seems to appear in your articles very often.
Ings is nothing more than a mercenary who is trying to squeeze every last penny out the club knowing its his last big payday. The guy is finished as a top level striker and i would love him to prove me wrong…. But he wont .. he doesnt seem to care if he doesnt get another minute on the pitch for the rest of the time he’s here as long as he gets paid ..
Gareth Bale springs to mind. When at Real Madrid, he trained then went straight to the golf course. He knew he wouldn’t get picked and just ran down his £300K a week contract. He did this for three years, refusing to drop his wages. Retired when contract ran out.
To be fair to Danny Ings, he’s never really been given a chance at West Ham. How many games has he actually started and played the full 90 minutes? Like most strikers, if he’s given the right service, he’ll score goals