Arsenal and Chelsea continue to be linked with a potential transfer move for Brentford striker Ivan Toney, and Fabrizio Romano has provided his latest update on the situation in his exclusive column for the Daily Briefing.
The England international has been a hugely impressive performer in the Premier League in the last few years, though he’s currently unable to play due to serving a suspension over alleged breaches of gambling regulations.
Romano now says that Arsenal and Chelsea have shown an interest in Toney, who plans to leave Brentford in 2024, ideally staying in the Premier League.
Still, the transfer news expert took to his column today to explain that nothing big was meant by his cryptic tweet which got some Arsenal fans excited yesterday.
Romano added that, as with Mikel Arteta’s handling of the goalkeeper situation at the Emirates Stadium, he could see the Gunners boss being similarly ruthless with his attacking options, perhaps hinting that a move for Toney could be a realistic option despite the presence of Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah in his squad.
“As for this tweet that got a few Arsenal fans excited, I was just confirming what I shared last week. Arsenal are interested in Toney deal conditions, same for Chelsea. There’s nothing new yet and nothing will happen now but these two clubs are interested and monitoring the situation,” Romano said.
“As we saw with Mikel Arteta’s approach to signing David Raya when he already had Aaron Ramsdale, I think we’re evolving into modern football with rotations, changes – it’s not a scandal to have one more important player.
“So I’m sure Arsenal are making that kind of improvement as they want to be competitive on all fronts, that’s their idea – but then it’s too early to say if Toney could be part of this plan or not.
“And as I also said, Chelsea are also interested and we know they’re struggling for goals at the moment, so let’s see if they will decide to go for Ivan Toney or a different kind of player.”
His age is against him. At 27 he will be on his last 4 year contract with no sell on value. That works out to £15 million per year plus a matbe £10 million a year in wages with incentives. Is he worth £25 million a year, which equates to £500k per week! Maybe worth it if he scores over 20 goals a season, stays injury free and we win the league.