Why Arsenal won’t be deterred by Ivan Toney bidding war against London rivals

Ivan Toney is stepping up preparations for a Premier League return and Arsenal remain competitive for his signature and will absolutely look to battle Chelsea and Tottenham for the Brentford striker.

The England striker is currently serving an eight-month ban imposed for breaching the Premier League’s betting regulations, but will return to action in January – just in time to put himself in the shop window for a lucrative transfer.

And with his deal with Brentford by that stage having just 17 months to run, Thomas Frank’s side have made it plain they are open to potential offers for the 27-year-old.

As a result, he’s been strongly linked with a plethora of clubs, with London rivals Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham seemingly heading the chase.

However, Mikel Arteta appeared to rule Arsenal out over the weekend, offering his backing to the Gunners’ current options and suggesting he was more than happy with both Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus.

It’s going to be intriguing to see how it all pans out in January, there’s going to be lots of interest in Toney.

He’s a top-quality player, he’s showing that he’s pretty keen on making the next step in his career now. He’s going to be very, very hungry, after missing a big chunk of football, to kick on again.

Toney would be a wonderful signing for Arsenal, he’d be a really good signing for Chelsea and he’d probably be a very good signing for Tottenham as well. The battle is going to be pretty intense for him. I couldn’t say right now where I think he’ll go. It’s anyone’s guess at the moment.

He’s made it pretty clear that the thought of Arsenal was a very appealing one to him as a player right now. Whether that helps still remains to be seen.

Brentford will drive up Ivan Toney asking price

Brentford aren’t just going to wave the white flag and let him go in January. They could potentially hold out and see what they can do in the summer, see if there’s any way of convincing him to sign a new contract. It’s doubtful, but we’ll see.

A £50million valuation feels a little bit low to me. I don’t see Brentford doing business at that sort of price. I’d be very surprised if they do. I think it will go higher. If you’ve got three top quality clubs, such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, in the mix, I’d be stunned if that’s the price tag that someone ends up paying for Toney.

He will be 28 in March and will have a year left on his contract come summer so potentially that will have a bit of an impact. I can’t imagine they would be too happy to get rid of him at that price; maybe add ons will drive it up and it will get to around the £70m mark. £50m just seems very low given the current prices that players are going for.

Arsenal go big for players if they really really want them. They’re showing that they’ll go big. They beat Manchester City in a bidding war for Declan Rice. So they can certainly take Chelsea on.

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