West Ham United target Ivan Toney is not for sale at Brentford
Brentford have “no intention” of selling West Ham target Ivan Toney although no offers have yet been made, according to iNews.
The Bees striker is thought to be interesting not only the Hammers, but also Leeds, Manchester United and Newcastle.
But it would apparently take something in the region of £40million for them to even consider the offer, with the 26-year-old still having three years left on his contract.
The forward scored 12 goals in 33 Premier League games in the 2021/22 season, and falls into the bracket of players that are proving hard to capture for “aspirational” teams like the Hammers and Newcastle.
According to the i’s Mark Douglas, it is a “fiendishly difficult” market around players below the very top teir, with names such as Everton pair Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Anthony Gordon being priced out of moves, and the Irons engaged in a protracted battle to sign Armando Broja.
A move for the Albanian may have reached its final stages however, after Chelsea reached an agreement with the player that a permanent move would make sense [Express].
Hitmen
David Moyes has been prioritising striker additions, and also has a bid in for Gianluca Scamacca, so it may be that the transfer policy at Brentford is not ultimately relevant.
With Fabrizio Romano reporting that the Broja move is “really close” it looks like the manager is finally going to get the forward he needs after 18-months with only Michail Antonio up top.
A similar fee as it would apparently take to tempt Toney is already on the table for Scamacca and the club appear to be interested in bringing more than one at the position, so if the Italian’s move breaks down they may turn back to the Englishman in earnest.
For now though it looks to be off the cards, and would surely be a difficult one to pull off if they put a bid in.
At the same time the fight for 20-year-old Broja has been anything but straight forward and it looks like they have overpowered London rivals in Chelsea for that one, so nothing can be entirely discounted.
At long last West Ham are putting together a pretty impressive transfer window, and optimism will be understandably high if further moves for the Jesse Lingard and Amadou Onana also get across the line.