THE FEELING OF BEING IMPORTANT IS SOMETHING I’VE CRAVED
EVEN now, you can detect his panic. Danny Ings tells the story of the day his career was given liftoff, but does so with a degree of trepidation.
Ings hates flying at the best of times, so you can imagine how he felt when the private jet he had boarded in Manchester on August 15 was buffeted by turbulence as it sped towards Southampton.
To make matters worse, this wasn’t a normal journey. It was a race against time, a trip to determine whether he could become a ‘proper’ Premier League player once again. Any type of delay and the ramifications, in all likelihood, would be another six months in the shadows.
‘Oh my God I was scared!’ says Ings. ‘It’s probably the bumpiest flight I have ever been on. There was a lot of turbulence. To make matters worse, it had arrived late to pick us up. I kept thinking, “Ugh! Is this going to happen?” We literally signed the deal sheets on the runway when we landed.
‘I didn’t want to get my hopes up just in case we had run out of time and I couldn’t get excited even when we were travelling down. David (Threlfall), my agent, had actually told me earlier in the window that it was going to come down to the last second.’
He was right. It was clear all summer Ings would leave Liverpool but his decision to sit tight until the end has reaped dividends. Here he is, back home in Southampton. He grew up in the city, dreaming of doing what his hero Matt Le Tissier did, and at long last his wish has come true.
Such was the fraught nature of deadline day, Ings signed an initial 12-month loan but the reality is he will not be going back to Anfield. His transfer will be made permanent next summer for £20million and, if he carries on as he has started, that fee will represent superb business.
A fresh start, after all, has proven invigorating. Liverpool would have been happy to keep Ings but, for his sanity, he had to leave. It’s all very well hearing raise for being professional and having an exemplary attitude but it means nothing to footballers if they don’t play.
This is not going to be an interview that dissects his time at Liverpool, which was punctured by two serious injuries.
His affinity for them is obvious and he departed having entered into a competition with Mohamed Salah as to who will score the most Premier League goals. Now there must be closure.
He knew that moment arrived when he watched his old team beat Paris Saint-Germain on TV without regret gnawing away. He didn’t even return to Anfield for last Saturday’s league game, instead he stayed in Southampton to do extra training to be ready for tomorrow’s trip to Wolves.
‘There is a part of me that will miss them, as Liverpool is a club of such magnitude,’ said Ings, as we talk at Southampton’s Staplewood HQ. ‘I was part of a squad that reached the Champions League final last year. But the feeling (of being important) is something I’ve craved for a long time.
‘I want to show people what I can do again.’
Those last words explain why, in his words, he ‘grabbed with both hands’ the No 9 jersey when it was offered to him. When he moved from Burnley to Liverpool in 2015, Ings picked No 28 as he felt he had to earn his spurs and to take one of the elite squad jerseys would have been presumptuous.
At St Mary’s however, there was no such hesitation. From the moment he saw it hanging in the dressing room ahead of his debut against Burnley, Ings knew it would be the perfect fit and three goals in five appearances provide vindication.
‘You know how hard I have worked to get to this moment,’ he said, referring to those endless, souldestroying days in the gym when it felt as if the world was ending. ‘I feel like I have developed a lot, even though I have missed a lot of football. That’s why I took the No9 shirt.’
A question for the future is whether he will wear an England shirt again. He finds this difficult to broach and his words should not be viewed as trumpeting his claims to be picked to face Spain and Croatia next month after some encouraging displays.
‘There are a lot of unbelievable footballers in this country,’ said Ings. ‘If one day it happens, I’ll be over the moon. That will almost feel like a great comeback story.’
The key word is comeback. England, you see, fills him with pride but it also triggers feelings of despair. The third anniversary of his one and only senior appearance in Lithuania is approaching.
His Dad, Shayne, has his shirt and cap from the game — Ings laughs at the idea those souvenirs made up for him cancelling the fishing trip on the Solent the pair were supposed to go on after Roy Hodgson called him up — but, for now, he has no wish to look at them. He wants to look forward.
‘I don’t want to be a guy that has got one cap,’ he said. ‘I have had lots of hurdles to overcome and now feel I’ve got over the last hurdle. I’m just working as hard as I can now to try and get another moment someday. Hopefully one day it will happen. I’m back in a happy place.’