July 1st marks the official end-date for the contracts of West Ham United quintet Michail Antonio, Aaron Cresswell, Lukasz Fabianski, Vladimir Coufal and Danny Ings.
Where the long-serving quartet go from here, meanwhile, only time will tell.
Michail Antonio is desperate to prove that he still has a lot to offer at the highest level, making his first appearance since breaking his leg in that horror car crash during Jamaica’s Gold Cup campaign.
Lukasz Fabianski rejected a return to Poland with Legia Warsaw in favour of extending his time in London.
A glovesman at Arsenal and Swansea City before joining West Ham United, Fabianski has reportedly been offered to Charlton Athletic, newly-promoted to the Championship.
Aaron Cresswell is not ruling out a return to Ipswich Town, while Vladimir Coufal wants to keep playing in the Premier League if possible.
As for Danny Ings, well, there is certainly something very ‘Wrexham-y’ about a 32-year-old former England international available on a free transfer.
Ally McCoist urges Wrexham to sign West Ham United misfit Danny Ings
Ambitious, deep-pocketed Wrexham have flown through the divisions. Three successive promotions, from non-league to the Championship in the blink of an eye.
The 30-something duo of Jay Rodriguez and Stephen Fletcher played their part in last term’s successful third-tier jailbreak, and Scotland legend Ally McCoist feels that Ings would represent another trademark Racecourse Ground arrival.
“I’m having it all day. All day, that’s alright for me,” McCoist replies. “Danny Ings will score goals, certainly.
“It’s really interesting to see how they do next season in the Championship. Really interesting.”
Both Danny Ings and Aaron Cresswell have been linked with Phil Parkinson’s outfit over the last few weeks. While it is over a decade since both players graced the second division, as former Sky Sports host Jeff Stelling points out, signing highly-experienced operators with a proven track record at a higher level is very much Wrexham’s ‘MO’.
“That’s what they do at Wrexham,” Stelling says. “They pick up players who have played at the highest level, maybe just past their best but still capable of scoring goals.
“They will need goalscorers, that’s for sure. And they will get one in Danny Ings.”
Frank McAvennie shares frustrations over Ings’ West Ham failure
Ings netted 21 times in 40 appearances in his most recent Championship campaign, coming under Sean Dyche at Burnley all the way back in 2013/14.
An underwhelming spell at West Ham in which he scored just five goals in 69 games means top-flight offers are likely to be few and far between this summer, even if Frank McAvennie blames the Hammers for wasting Ings’ talents rather than blaming Ings for wasting his chance at the London Stadium.
“Danny Ings is a wonderful striker but he can’t do it because he’s not getting chances,” McAvennie who had two spells in claret and blue in the 1980s and early 1990s, said on the Let Me Be Frank podcast.
“[West Ham] don’t create as many chances as they used to, that’s for sure.”
Given the service, and utilised in a system which requires less off-the-ball work from the number nine, and Ings is still more than capable of finding the net at a pretty reliable rate.
That miserly tally of four Premier League goals in a West Ham shirt, after all, came in just eleven starts.
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