Southampton FC laughed to the bank at Aston Villa’s expense | OneFootball

Southampton sold Danny Ings to Aston Villa for £25 million in the summer of 2021

Danny Ings endured an excellent stint with Southampton during the prime of his career, earning a big-money move to Premier League rivals Aston Villa, who must've felt scammed by what they got instead.

English striker Danny Ings spent time in various youth academies for clubs on the South Coast of the country, including Southampton and AFC Bournemouth, but it would be with the latter that he would make his breakthrough.

Ings made his professional debut in October 2009 for the Cherries in a Football League Trophy tie away to Northampton Town, replacing current Newcastle United assistant manager Jason Tindall.

He'd move to Burnley in 2011, scoring 31 goals and assisting 11 in his final two seasons at Turf Moor in the Championship and the Premier League before Liverpool came calling in the summer of 2015.

However, Ings would make just 14 Premier League appearances for the Merseyside outfit across four years contracted to the club, suffering two separate ACL injuries before joining Southampton on loan in the summer of 2018, and making the move permanent the following summer for a potential £20 million.

Danny Ings enjoyed a fruitful spell at Southampton

Upon his return to the South Coast, Ings was thrust immediately into the side by then-boss Mark Hughes, scoring three in his first five appearances for the club.

Throughout his first campaign with the Saints, Ings would suffer numerous small injuries, mainly hamstring issues that would keep him out of action, but he would nevertheless end the season with seven goals and three assists in 24 Premier League games, including a brace in a 3-2 home win over Arsenal.

The 2019/20 season was where Ings would arguably hit his peak, as he became one of the most prolific forwards in the league.

Although he would score just once in the opening six league games under Austrian boss Ralph Hasenhuttl, he'd explode into life thereafter, hitting 13 goals in Southampton's next top-flight games, including wins over Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City.

He'd finish the season strongly, too, scoring seven in the final nine games of the season, finishing the year on 22 goals and two assists, playing in all 38 Premier League games, finishing ahead of the likes of Sadio Mane, Harry Kane, and Mohamed Salah in the goalscoring charts and behind only Jamie Vardy.

His final season with the Saints would be marred by numerous injury woes, which ruined his momentum, though he would still finish the campaign with a more than respectable 12 goals and four assists from 29 top-flight games, alerting the interest of division rivals Aston Villa.

Aston Villa would spend big to sign Danny Ings from Southampton, but he would fail to justify his sizeable fee

Villa, under the guidance of former Brentford boss Dean Smith, submitted a £25 million offer to sign Ings, then 29, with the Englishman signing a three-year deal at Villa Park.

Upon his arrival, Smith said, "Danny is an outstanding Premier League footballer who has scored goals wherever he has played."

The striker would finish his Southampton stay with 46 goals and ten assists in exactly 100 appearances across all competitions, with the expectation that he would come in and challenge Ollie Watkins for the centre-forward starting berth.

Ings would start the first nine league games of his Villa career, scoring three and assisting twice, though once again an injury would disrupt his flow and by the time he returned to the side, Watkins had nailed down the starting place up front.

From there, he would be in and out of the side, and would finish his first season at Villa Park with seven goals and six assists in 30 Premier League appearances.

He'd fail to kick on the following campaign, and after six goals in 18 top flight appearances, West Ham would pay an initial £12 million to sign Ings in January 2023.

Villa would take a hit in the region of £10 million after Ings' 18 months contracted to the club, and although he certainly won't go down as one of the club's worst strikers in their history, his failure to hit the same heights as he did at Southampton and the loss they made from him means he was not a successful transfer.

He would endure arguably an even worse tenure at the London Stadium, with just four goals in 52 appearnaces for the Hammers, before joining Championship side Sheffield United on a free at 33.

£25 million deal with Villa.