Have you ever wondered whether Southampton have overpaid or underpaid for a player in the transfer market?
Sometimes you can sit and watch a player out on the pitch and wonder how the club paid so much, or so little, money for them. It is intriguing as to how the market works and how Southampton work within it.
One recent success in the transfer market for Southampton has been Danny Ings, who joined the club from Liverpool. But, how has Ings performed in relation to his transfer fee?
The BBC reported that Southampton paid a £20m transfer fee for Ings last summer, in order to sign him on a permanent deal after he spent his first year at the club on loan. For the sake of this article, we are counting the first year on loan as part of the £20m payment.
So, how many goal contributions has Ings had in that time? In his first season on loan, Ings scored eight and assisted three in all competitions for the club. This season, however, he has been able to up his game and rack up 18 goals and two assists – taking his overall total across the two campaigns to 31.
This means that, in just two seasons, every goal contribution provided by Ings so far has cost them roughly £650k in terms of his transfer fee.
If you want to base it just on goals scored, he has cost Southampton £770k-per-goal and £870k for each Premier League goal.
This calculation highlights just how good of a signing Ings has been for the Saints and also shows that big money signings can still be bargains if the players who arrive are able to perform as well as Ings has done.
