Liverpool need a striker and could re-sign prolific ace who's since found a new lease of life ⚽️
The Southampton star wants to challenge himself at the highest level
There was a time when Danny Ings looked as if he would set the world alight at Liverpool.
‘Time’ may be generous for some fans’ tastes, but those with longer memories will certainly recall how bright the forward looked in the brief moments within which he wasn’t sat recovering on the sidelines.
The then 22-year-old had signed off the back of a relatively prolific campaign with Burnley and looked absolutely bursting at the seams with promise.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2018 - following two serious, long-term knee injuries (in either knee) - and the player found himself packing his bags and on his way to the club, Southampton, he’d supported as a child in a £20m move.
Fortunately, since making the switch to the South of England, the former Burnley hitman seems to have largely (‘largely’ being the operative word) shaken off the spectre of injuries that haunted his every season in the North-West.
The centre-forward featured in 91 league games (equating to just under 80% of the total English top-flight fixtures) across the last three seasons, which certainly contrasts heavily with his rate in Merseyside.
With it being now reported that Ings is seeking a new challenge, despite Ralph Hasenhuttl’s outfit throwing the kitchen sink at the 28-year-old with the offer of a four-year lucrative contract, some tentative chatter has emerged regarding a potential return to former club Liverpool.
With a year remaining on his current contract, the Englishman is heading into dangerous territory, at least as far as Southampton’s hopes of securing a reasonable asking price are concerned.
Nonetheless, according to The Athletic, the South Coast-based outfit are prepared to risk letting their talisman go for nothing next summer, unless a potential suitor should field an offer difficult to ignore.
For a player in the peak of his powers, not to mention with the mid-table side apparently unbothered by the prospect of losing their top-scorer on a free next year, this would likely mean a fee in excess of £30m.
Theoretically, this would be possible for Liverpool, even in a worst-case scenario as far as our finances our concerned, with the recruitment team hoping to amass £60m in player sales.
Beyond the financial side of things, however, would the player himself be tempted by a reunion with Jurgen Klopp?
“The lads at Liverpool all wanted me to stay, but understood. We used to play cards on the way to away games and it was a different feeling for me because I wouldn’t be starting,” the striker told The Times about his stint in Merseyside.
“I would cover that up, and I hid that, because I didn’t want to bring any negativity to the group. But it didn’t stop me going home and just sitting in the house with my dogs and being upset. That happened for a long time.
“Although I was happy around the lads and everyone at the club, on a much deeper level I know I wasn’t as happy as I can be. And, when I am happy, I play my best football.”
A potential return to Liverpool will invite mixed feelings for the Winchester-born attacker.
He was a popular figure in our dressing room, appreciated by Klopp and his teammates alike, with the latter once appearing unshakeably positive about his future in Merseyside.
But as horrific luck saw him fall down the pecking order behind a front-three which, at the time, was seen to be unmatched across Europe, it seemed that nothing short of a miracle would be required to reignite Ings’ ill-fated Liverpool career.
As such, it’s a potential switch that’s prone to inviting stomach-churning ‘what ifs’ from both parties - what if the forward rediscovered the spectre that hounded him in his first spell at L4? What if our front-three all hit the ground running next term and make it extremely difficult for him to break in on a permanent basis.
After all, we’re not dealing with a promising 22-year-old, but rather a more mature option with aspirations of playing at the highest level, presumably with a similar regularity to that which he has experienced of late at Southampton.
There is a far more positive what if in there somewhere, of course - what if the prolific No.9 returns to Anfield and carries his goalscoring form from the last two years into the upcoming 2021/22 campaign?
With questions marks circulating over Roberto Firmino’s Liverpool future, despite a strong finish to the prior term, you’d have to think that Ings won’t get a better chance to break into our prestigious front-three, if he fancies a move in the first place.
As nice an idea as that sounds, however, links between us and the 28-year-old remain far from concrete and firmly rooted in that most intoxicating stasis of thoughts - what if?
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