EXCLUSIVE: Brentford happy to sell Toney to Arsenal in ‘structured deal’

Steve Kay

• Updated: 23 Dec 2023 09:50 GMT
• 3 min read

Exclusive

Brentford are prepared to sit down with Arsenal to structure a deal that would take Ivan Toney to the Emirates, FootballTransfers understands.

The Gunners are in the market for a top striker in 2024, and would ideally like to bring one in next month during the January transfer window.

A lack of immediate available funds makes signing an established number nine tricky in January.

However, FootballTransfers has learned that Brentford are prepared to sit down with Arsenal to structure a deal for Toney that would be paid over a number of installments.

This would allow Arsenal to be able to afford to sign Toney next month.

Brentford and Arsenal enjoy a good relationship, with the club conducting negotiations this past summer which saw goalkeeper David Raya move on loan to the Emirates.

Any successful transfer would also be dependent on Arsenal meeting Brentford’s asking price. FootballTransfers understands that the price would lower to £55 million if Arsenal were prepared to pay it in a straight payment.

The Gunners have just earned £66m from their Champions League group campaign, during which they finished first and qualified for the last-16 for a match against Porto.

They have not received all of this money yet but they are looking at taking out a loan against it. This loan will enable them to be active in the January market.

Arsenal have been linked with number of strikers for 2024, including Victor Osimhen, Dusan Vlahovic and recently Dominic Solanke.

The 27-year-old Toney has emerged as one of the best English strikers around in the last few years, and he scored an impressive 20 Premier League goals in 2022-23.

He has won one cap for the England national team and he is hoping to work his way back into the squad for Euro 2024 next summer.

He is currently banned for illegal betting but will return to playing next month.

His contract at Brentford expires in 2025, making a transfer next year very likely.

Newcastle also hold an interest in Toney, as exclusively revealed by FootballTransfers in September.