Danny Ings joined West Ham from Aston Villa in the January transfer window.
West Ham boss David Moyes paid around £15 million to bring Danny Ings to the London Stadium just under fourth months ago.
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It seemed like a surprise signing at the time – one that was layered in panic.
Moyes has always insisted that he does his due diligence on players before signings them. The Scot once went 18 months with Michail Antonio as our only striker because he ‘couldn’t find the perfect man for the job’.
However, he contradicted himself by signing Ings, 30, in January. The former Villa man is painfully ill-suited to Moyes’s setup, and has never thrived when playing as a lone striker through the middle.
He has scored just three goals in 16 games for West Ham so far, and seems to be well off the pace (Transfermarkt).
Why the Hammers paid anything like that for an ageing, injury-prone forward who is not suited to our playing style is beyond me.
However, there is another part of the Ings deal that I find genuinely mind-boggling…
West Ham have made a huge Danny Ings error
The 30-year-old earns a whopping £125k-a-week with West Ham (Salary Sport).
That puts him behind only Lucas Paqueta in the club’s top earners list at the London Stadium.
I bet he couldn’t sign the contract quick enough when the Hammers made him that offer!
Ings was also offered a two-and-a-half year deal by the Hammers. So not only did the West Ham owners pay £15 million for him but they also committed £16.25 million in wages for the the next 30 months.
When you look at the transfer deal in its entirety, it really was a disaster from the Hammers. There must have been zero thought or any kind of long-term planning from Moyes when it came to bringing Ings into the club – only pure panic.
If Moyes remains at the London Stadium as manager beyond the end of this season, he should look to move the 30-year-old striker on this summer, even if it’s for a big loss.
I thought that the Danny Ings signing was a strange one from the West Ham manager at the time, but the more that you look into the finances of the deal, the more mind-boggling the whole transfer becomes.
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