When Danny Ings left St Mary's rather hastily for some people's liking back in the summer, it left a sour taste in the mouth, now no ones is mourning the departure of the former local hero and are talking about the future not the past.

Last season Saints strike force consisted of Danny Ings and Che Adams with Dan N'Lundulu and for the first half of the season before his loan move to Bournemouth, Shane Long.

Between them they hit 21 Premier League goals, all of the scored by Ings and Adams, with Ings hitting 12 and Adams 9.

This was just under the total League goals scored of 47 from the 38 games played but more of that later.

When Ings left for the "Challenge" many were worried about how we would score goals without him, I said back then that I thought that Che Adams would step up to the plate and I expected good things from Adam Armstrong, I got that half right, although I am still hopeful that the striker Armstrong will come good, his game is more than just goals and such as at Watford he played a full part in the victory despite not scoring.

I knew little about Armando Broja, so couldn't call that one, however what I did say was that last season our strikers hit 21 goals and that would be the benchmark for the season, if the strikers got less than that, we would be struggling, but if they got more then the departure of Ings for £30 million and the acquisition of Armstrong for around half of that would have been a success.

For those without a calculator handy the strikers rate last season of 21 goals was about 0.55 per game over the 38 games played.

So how are we comparing this season you may ask ?

If we take just the usual starting strike duo of Adams & Broja then they have scored 6 goals each making it 12 goals from 25 games, at 0.48 per game that is slightly worse than that of last seasons Ings/Adams ratio of goals per game.

But the difference is this season they are starting to find their feet and come into form, you can easily see both hitting double figures this season and if they do then they will at least equal my benchmark.

But unlike last season, the fringe strikers have contributed, Shane long of course scored on Saturday and Adam Armstrong has chipped in with two, the second of which was the difference between beating Aston Villa and drawing, so he two has contributed.

If we take the forward department as a whole then they have notched 15 of our 32 goals so far, that means the overall ration is 0.60 per game slightly better than last seasons total.

If they maintain that .60 per game average then we will better last season, but as I have said, this is a strike force that is getting better not stagnating.

But it isn't just the strikers that are sharing the goals, James Ward Prowse is joint leading scorer with Broja & Adams on 6 and in total 10 players have scored this season for the club in the Premier League to make it 32 goals from 25 games.

To get back to stats, last season we averaged 1.24 goals per game, this season we are slightly above on 1.28, but again we are in the ascendency unlike last season where we scored most of our goals in the first half of the campaign.

The mantle has been taken up of late not just by the strikers but the whole team, last season we only had 4 players who got 4 or more, this season we already have 3 over that number with another 2 only a goal away from hitting that target.

One thing the departure of Ings has done is it has made us play a better all round game, last season it could be said that everything went through him, we became a one trick team, which was fine when he was banging them in, not so good when he lost form.

But now we are a far more all round team, we change tactics to suit the game and as was shown at Manchester United we can change them during the game as well when needed.

I am confident that in the final third of the season not only will our strikers up their goals tally but so will others in the team , Nathan Redmond is yet to score, he will do so, as will perhaps Nathan Tella and even Theo Walcott or Moussa Djenepo, we have a squad now not just a starting XI.

When Danny Ings left it hurt, not because he had left, we were braced for that, but the fact that he didn't leave for a big club, he had not left for the chance of a last shot at glory , he had left for his bank balance.

It was very admirable to mention that he needed to challenge himself etc etc, but the truth of the matter was that he was swapping one mid table club for another , the chance of glory has gone for this season with Villa out of the cup and the only challenge left for Danny is to hope that Villa can lift themselves above Saints come the final League table so he can claim that he made the right move.

Danny Ings hurt Saints supporters, he chose money over his home town and the chance to become a genuine club legend, he failed the test, I am not naïve, I don't think that every player would play for nothing, Ings like all of us has to look after his family, that is fine, just don't tell us that you did it for the challenge.

Photo: Action Images

wrathoftazz added 15:35 - Feb 21 Danny who?? Lol My only concern and this will be a test of the new owners, is that we get raided in the summer. Broja is almost certainly going back and sold on, but the likes of JWP, Salisu, KWP and Orio are staples of this new look Southampton. Its taken Ralph 3 years to get this squad playing this way, take away those and it may well be back to more of the 9nil of the past. Let's hope Raplh, the board and owners, shed the "small club" mentality, keep our best players, or atleast not replace them with Championship (at best) players and give us something to hope for, I stead of the "same old saints"

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A1079 added 15:47 - Feb 21 I would rather have played and beaten Villa first before writing something like this. A bit of schadenfreude is more pleasant when you know it cannot come back and bite you.
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Peterx added 16:19 - Feb 21 The close to 30M for Ingsand also getting back close to what we paid for Vesty, as well as not paying inflated wages for Bertrand all look like masterstrokes now.
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Centurion added 17:08 - Feb 21 intriguing posts. Let's see if the new owners do more to hold on to our best players.
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YosemiteSaint added 18:02 - Feb 21 Similar could be said of Vestergaard. We've pocketed almost £50 million on two players that have all but disappeared. That's some shrewd business!
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SanMarco added 13:34 - Feb 22 I think Ings going to Villa was an unintended consequence of his game of bluff with the club over the new contract. My guess is that he intended to sign eventually if no big club had come in for him but the Saints said yes please to £30m. He then had to either back down and sign or go to Villa. I hope he is enjoying the higher salary because that is the only thing HE has got out of the move!! Vestergaard was good business because he was hugely over-rated. I join in with the worries about us losing players in the summer. The dirty money up north will inflate things and high offers for Salisu, JWP and S. Armstrong will probably come in from Newcastle and the usual suspects. JWP may stay loyal, as may Romeu but the others would probably go. Broja will go without us getting a penny but that is the loan system for you. Then it will be back to 'rebuild'. Still - it is wonderful that we are only in February and we are NOT talking about relegation!!

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underweststand added 11:25 - Feb 24 Even when hampered by Injuries / covid, Danny Ings could be relied upon one could rely upon to get in the goals fairly regularly, but we've been short of strikers able to get in to double figures on a regular basis. There has been a huge improvement in Ché Adams' performances, and now playing alongside Broja they make a good pairing. As did others historically; Beattie / Pahars, Lambert /Lallana and Mane / Pelle. However, the problem is that although Ché has come into his own a bit more, there is still a huge doubt whether we will have Armando next season, and the search for another replacement must begin once again. Danny made a good move - to the benefit of his agent and bank manager - but he is surely disappointed at his season, and most of the goals he has scored have been in games that Villa eventually lost. We are well-used to losing the big name strikers (like those mentioned above) and will probably continue to do so, and we must move on. Losing Danny has just been yet another case of .." Thanks.... it was nice while it lasted ".

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