Southampton boss speaks on Danny Ings’ future amidst Spurs links

Ralph Hasenhuttl has admitted that Danny Ings’s contract situation is far from ideal for Southampton but hopes that the club can hang on to the striker amidst speculation linking him with a move to Tottenham.

Ings is now into the final 12 months of his contract at St Mary’s and reports have indicated that he has declined a new deal offered by the South Coast club.

The Telegraph claimed last week that Spurs had made the 28-year-old their number one transfer target at the insistence of Nuno Espirito Santo, who wants to partner him with Harry Kane up front next season.

However, it has been suggested that Southampton would not want to do business with Spurs as the relationship between the two clubs deteriorated during their negotiations for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg last summer.

Hasenhuttl has now spoken about Ings’ future and the Austrian certainly struck a defiant tone, suggesting that the striker owes a lot to the Saints. 

He told BBC Radio Solent (as relayed by The Daily Mirror): “He’s (Ings) our player for another year, we paid a lot of money for him. When we brought him here, we invested a lot to get him to the highest level and how he is at the moment.

“We stuck with him with all these injuries he had, gave him the time to recover, gave him the time to perform.

“There’s no reason to sell him, but it’s always a risk for the player when you go into your final year without a contract.

“That’s why it’s never good for anybody, not for us, not for him, because you never know what can happen in football – injuries can happen, which nobody wants.”

“People on our team are telling him what to do, we have our opinions about what we want him to do.

“He’s our player and we’d love him to be here, but one thing is also clear – when he is not extending his contract, that it is not a perfect situation for him, it’s not a perfect situation for us.”

Spurs Web Opinion 

Despite Hasenhuttl’s bold words, it is clear that Southampton have little choice but to sell Ings this summer or they will lose him for a fraction of that fee in January or for nothing in 12 months. However, it will certainly not be easy for Spurs to get the 28-year-old as several Premier League clubs will likely vie for his signature.

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