Romano makes starting Toney revelation as Brentford striker's true value revealed

Robin Bairner

• 10 Feb 2024 05:56 CST
• 2 min read

Ivan Toney may remain at Brentford, but speculation over the striker’s future was one of the main themes of the January transfer window, with Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea all interested in the once-capped England star.

Toney had been tipped to join any of the three Premier League giants, but after Brentford put an eye-watering price tag of £100 million on the player, no deal was done.

FootballTransfers exclusively revealed that Arsenal were the first to be put off, with the nine-figure sum prompting Mikel Arteta’s side to look at other targets, figuring that the Bees were simply trying to take advantage of the situation to make an enormous profit on the forward.

Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Brentford knew exactly what they were doing when they asked for £100m for Toney.

On the Daily Briefing, Romano states: “Ahead of the January transfer window, between October and November, Brentford were looking to ask for £60m-£65m for Ivan Toney. Then what happened?

“On the market, there were no other strikers available. Victor Osimhen wasn't available. Benjamin Sesko wasn’t available and many others were not available, and so they decided to put a different price tag on Ivan Toney, something around £100m.

“No one made a proposal because they didn't want to spend that money for a player who was out of contract in summer 25. So now, in the summer transfer window as the manager Thomas Frank mentioned, the idea is for Ivan Toney to join a top club.”

How much is Ivan Toney really worth?

Ivan Toney’s Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) is presently around £19m (€22.4m), though this value has plummeted over the course of the last eight months, during which the striker has been banned from professional football due to illicit betting.

At the end last season, Toney’s ETV was holding steady around £31m. His ‘true’ valuation is likely to be around this figure, with his current valuation skewed by his absence from the game.

Brentford, meanwhile, will try to extract the maximum value possible from him. With just a year left on his deal, the Bees will do well to reach their previous estimate of £60m, yet with three major clubs all looking for a centre-forward and Toney having undoubted Premier League pedigree, it may be that a bidding war means they can extract a huge premium for their star man.