Aston Villa sign £25m Danny Ings from Southampton after landing Leon Bailey
Aston Villa announced the signing of the striker Danny Ings from Southampton on a three-year deal hours after securing Leon Bailey from Bayer Leverkusen, as they prepared for life after Jack Grealish.
Ings has arrived for a fee understood to be £25m and was described by Dean Smith as an “outstanding Premier League footballer who has scored goals wherever he has played”. The manager referred to Bailey, who has joined for a reported £30m, as a “hugely exciting young striker with great pace and creativity”.
The 29-year-old Ings received further praise from Smith on Villa’s website. “He is also a top professional with a great character who will be a leader in our squad and a role model for our rapidly developing young academy players who are now in and around the first team,” Smith said.
The moves came on a day when Grealish closed on a £100m transfer to Manchester City. The playmaker is poised to become the most expensive British player of all time.
Ings had one year left on his deal at Southampton and turned down the offer of an extension that would have made him the best-paid player in the club’s history at about £100,000 a week. He scored 41 goals in 94 Premier
League games for the club after joining from Liverpool, initially on loan, in 2018.
Southampton concluded the bid for Ings was too good to turn down but are adamant that James Ward-Prowse, for whom Leicester have made an offer, will not be sold. Tottenham had been keen on Ings but Villa stole a march on rival suitors with an offer that came out of the blue.
Bailey, who will be 24 next week, has a contract until 2025. He scored 39 goals in three and a half Bundesliga campaigns for Leverkusen and played in the Champions League and Europa League. He is relishing the challenge of showing what he can do in the Premier League.
“It’s always been somewhere that I’ve wanted to play,” he said. “I feel like now is the right time and I’m excited about it … I’m a flair type of person, I like to entertain the fans, do my tricks, use my speed and make life difficult for defenders.”
Emi Buendía and Ashley Young have also joined Villa this summer.