Southampton forward Danny Ings has rejected a contract extension offer from the club, as reported by The Athletic.

What's the latest news involving Ings?

The 28-year-old has just entered the final 12 months of his contract at St Mary's and has been given the opportunity to commit his long-term future to the Saints.

It is understood that Southampton offered Ings a new four-year deal but he has opted to turn this down. The club are now reportedly willing to let Ings see out his current contract, which would then see him become a free agent in 2022.

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Did Southampton make Ings an eye-catching offer?

It seems that they did.

According to The Athletic's report, the South Coast club were happy to make Ings the highest-paid player in their history. Furthermore, they wanted to give the England international a lengthy contract, despite his battles with injuries over the years.

However, it appears that Ings' decision was not financially motivated, and that he may have knocked back the offer as he wants to test himself at the highest level, having previously been linked with Manchester City and Tottenham.

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How has Ings fared at Southampton?

The attacker has made exactly 100 first-team appearances for the Saints, and has a very impressive goalscoring record over the last three years.

He has netted 46 times in these matches, with his best campaign in terms of numbers coming in 2019/20 when he scored 22 Premier League goals, narrowly missing out on the Golden Boot to Jamie Vardy.

How much of an impact does Ings make at Southampton?

According to Soccerbase, Southampton had a far superior win percentage in 2020/21 when Ings was playing. Across all competitions, they won 40% of the games that Ings featured in, whereas this dropped to 29% when he was absent from the line-up.

This is hardly a surprise given how regularly he has found the target for the team, particularly over the last two years. Ings has scored 34 of Southampton's 98 league goals since the start of the 2019/20 season, meaning that he is responsible for 35% of their goals in the top-flight.

He is undoubtedly Southampton's key player in the final third, someone who is capable of popping up with a moment of magic in front of goal.

However, as things stand, he will be walking away from the club for free this time next year, which could leave Ralph Hasenhuttl with a major task on his hands of trying to find someone who can replicate Ings' influence on his side.