According to a recent report from Birmingham Live, Aston Villa forward Danny Ings was sold to West Ham United on deadline day for a transfer fee in the region of £12 million. It was stated that the striker was frustrated playing second fiddle to Ollie Watkins and wanted to exit which led to the Villa chiefs to cash in on him hoping that a direct replacement would be sorted prior to the transfer deadline.
Ings’ Campaign With Aston Villa This Season
Ings enjoyed a decent campaign with the Villans before parting ways as he had produced several influential displays while leading the charge for them down the middle. He found the back of the net on seven occasions and also created an assist over twenty-one appearances for the West Midlands outfit so far this season.
The English centre-forward had been reliable and consistent while coming off the bench as an impact substitute. He averaged 0.6 tackles, 1.5 shots, 0.5 key passes and 0.5 dribbles per game in the Premier League. However, he needed to take care of the ball better after only completing 72% of his attempted passes in the English top flight (stats via whoscored).
Did Emery Do The Right Thing In Sanctioning His Exit?
Ings excels at engineering space for himself to get a few shots in on-target. He can be a decent finisher in front of the opponent’s goal when he is playing with confidence on the pitch. The English striker can even make some powerful runs with the ball but needs to work on improving his link-up play on the attacking end of the field.
Ings only operates as a target man in front of the goal and usually converts opportunities created by his teammates. The 30-year-old was productive enough for the Villans but lacked creativity and versatility in the attacking third, which is why the Villans thought they could replace him as there were speculations regarding Moussa Dembele‘s arrival to Villa Park before the transfer deadline. However, the deal did not go through as they failed to make an offer in time which poses a clear-cut problem in the frontline for Unai Emery now.
Although the Spanish tactician has several attackers at his disposal but only Watkins remains versatile enough to feature in the number nine position. So the fans can only hope for Watkins to continue for the remainder of the season without picking up an injury while Ings fights for a regular starting spot for the Hammers.
