LIKE most supporters, I was quite surprised, at first, to see that Danny Ings had been transferred.

Especially, as he was the club’s top goalscorer last season, and a lot of his goals were the ones that secured the three points on the day.

Although he did miss a few games through injury.

So all of these things will have been taken into account when Aston Villa knocked on the door. I’m sure that Ralph and the board had meetings to talk about this situation.

I would have thought, at first, that any manager would want a replacement lined up for his top goalscorer. But what Ralph has come out saying is, that the player, or probably his agent, had stipulated that under no circumstances would they be signing another contract.

If, for instance, they had insisted he saw his contract out, he would probably have a player then who wasn’t giving 100 per cent, as he had been refused the opportunity to move on. And probably wouldn’t be bothered where the club finished, as he knew he was going out the door anyway.

So bye, bye Mr Ings.

But, the interest now is on who will be taking his place. Thirty-million pounds, if that was the figure, sounds an amazing amount.

But when you turn over the page and see articles about people like Jack Grealish going from Villa to Man City and Harry Kane at Tottenham, all the figures start at £100million.

The Kane situation of course is interesting, as he, like Ings, has obviously said he wants to leave the club. He has gone from being the fans’ favourite to upsetting them, with not only his statements, but the fact that he hasn’t even turned up when the training restarted.

I’ve read that he was still in Florida on holiday and I would never have dreamt any player, or particularly someone like him, who had a good reputation on and off the field, would have done a thing like this to try and win the club over to let him go.

It should be remembered that he still has three years left on his contract. And whilst I have never met the Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, it was interesting to read Harry Redknapp’s comments, who has managed Spurs. He described the chairman as a person who “won’t budge” and if he sets a figure, that will be the one another club will have to pay.

He is not happy with the player not turning up, and I can understand that, but also with the first offer of only £100m. It has been said he would only let Kane leave for £150m. So I am sure the juggling between those two figures is going on at present.

Kane might be enjoying Florida, but he should realise that overnight he has lost the total support of many supporters, who roared him on when he was playing for Spurs.

I can understand Aston Villa’s approach to Saints for Ward-Prowse, as they, like Spurs could with Kane, knew that they would be losing their top player in Grealish. They have obviously lined up Ward-Prowse to take his place.

They obviously know what a good player he is.

But whilst in the old days, a player on contract, if the club didn’t want him to go, he stayed, it worries me now with the money involved in signing on fees and salaries that any paper talk might upset a player’s attitude. But whilst it obviously has with Kane, I’m pretty sure it won’t have done with Ward-Prowse, who always gives 100 per cent to Southampton.

Good to see arrests made

I noticed that the police have been able to arrest 11 people who were involved in the racist social media comments, after England’s defeat against Italy in the Euro 2020 final, criticising the three players who missed penalties in the shootout.

And so should it be. The thing for me, as I’ve said before, is they all hide behind fictitious names. But this time the police have demanded whoever runs these accounts to produce their real name and full marks to them.

It could change lots of things going forward.