Aston Villa added to their fourth signing of the summer window on Wednesday evening – and the second of the day. Danny Ings completed a move from fellow Premier League side Southampton on a four-year deal for a fee of around £30million. That came after Leon Bailey was confirmed earlier in the day on a four-year contract after signing from German side Bayer Leverkusen. The Saints played their first pre-season friendly without Ings when they faced Levante in a friendly this evening. After the game, Southampton head coach Ralph Hasenhuttl spoke about Ings, revealing it was not a ‘shock’ to those involved within the club.
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “It is not a shock for me. We are well informed about what is going on behind the scenes. It is clear that we had a player that did not want to sign for us anymore. It is fantastic that we have got a lot of money for him. He scored a lot of goals for this club. It is a pity that he leaves but that is the business. I just want to say thank you to him for what he did here. We can replace him with the money we have got.”
Despite having the funds to replace the centre forward, time is an enemy at present. The 2021/22 Premier League season gets underway on Saturday, August 14 as the south coast side faces Everton at Goodison Park.
Ralph Hasenhuttl added: “We know that we need two more players so we must be looking, still to buy them cheaper and sell them for more. We must have a look at what striker we need but we have a few alternatives in Che, Longy, Obafemi and Redmond can play up front. We lose an important striker who scored a lot of goals and we must split the goals he scored amongst our players, on their shoulder. Three more goals, four more goals from them and they can maybe replace him.” We will hopefully get two or three more in and I am sure that we will replace him.”
