Danny Ings has endured a nightmare 18-month spell with West Ham United, there really is no other way of describing his time with us.
The 32-year-old striker joined the Hammers from Aston Villa in January 2023 for a fee believed to be worth £15 million.
David Moyes panicked when bringing Danny Ings to the London Stadium, with the Hammers facing a relegation fight at the time.
The experienced striker struggled to make any kind of impact for us, and has bagged just four goals for the club in one-and-a-half seasons.
He recently admitted that he found it really hard to settle into life at the London Stadium, and his playing style definitely wasn’t an ideal fit for Moyes’s system.
So he probably would have been excited when Julen Lopetegui took over from the Scot earlier this summer.
However, after the arrival of Niclas Fullkrug, Ings has fallen even further down the centre-forward pecking order at the London Stadium.
And now, the Hammers are apparently ready to make a drastic call on the striker’s future.
West Ham ready to take action with Danny Ings
The former Villa, Southampton, Liverpool and Burnley striker’s West Ham career has quite simply never got off the ground.
He’s quite clearly well past his best, and doesn’t have the physical attributes needed to succeed in the Premier League anymore.
I’m sure he’d still make a very good striker at Championship level, or perhaps for a relegation threatened team in the Premier League that plays with two strikers up top.
One thing is clear – Ings has no kind of future at the London Stadium, and West Ham are ready to make a very bold call on the forward it seems.
According to a report from talkSPORT, West Ham are desperate to get Ings’ £125k-a-week wages off the books this summer.
And in order to make that happen, the powers that be at the club are prepared to let him leave on a free transfer.
I think that will be a smart move, despite the fact that moving him on for nothing will represent a £15 million loss for the club.
He has one year remaining on his deal at the London Stadium, so that means he’ll be due around £6.5 million in wages.
Letting him leave for free now ensures that we won’t have to pay him that money, and it will free up more salary space for further new arrivals.
Danny Ings and West Ham certainly haven’t been a match made in heaven, and now it seems like he’s set for pastures new this summer.
If he does leave, it will be good news all round for the club.
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