Brentford has reportedly set a more affordable price for Ivan Toney, and this has piqued Arsenal’s interest in the English striker. Toney is seen as a potential solution to Arsenal’s goal-scoring needs, and it’s believed he’s also keen on the move to the Emirates.
Toney is currently serving a lengthy ban for betting breaches but is expected to return for the second half of the season. Brentford has felt his absence keenly and is anticipated to consider offers for his signature when the transfer window reopens.
A report in The Sun suggests that Brentford is seeking offers in the vicinity of £65 million for Toney, a significantly lower figure than the previously rumoured price range of £80m to £100m. This revised asking price could make a deal more feasible for Arsenal.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Toney will bring goals to our team and make us even more unpredictable.
He has a different profile to our current options and will likely make us add some changes to our style of play.
However, Toney understands the Premier League and is a striker most defenders fear, unlike our current strikers.
If we have the money to spend, we need to make this transfer happen in January and boost our chance of winning the league.
What seems problematic for Arsenal is balancing their books; a problem created by the exorbitant purchase of a player who has failed to deliver much expected results.
Arsenal has fiddled with first team players struggling to make an important sale to no avail. The blunder has shaken the arsenal game structure and right now we aren’t able to produce the same quality play as was the case last campaign in spite of the superb performance of Rice in the midfield. Neither Saka nor Odegaard are at their best because Xhaka and Partey are missing.
Things have worsened with Raya replacing Ramsdale. We are just lucky because personal standards especially at the defence have greatly improved.
So in spite of this low price, my guess is that Arsenal won’t still buy Toney unless they sell someone. And who will they sell right now?
I know many will disagree with me, but I would prefer Watkins, if he can be bought for the right price that is . I think he is a better all round footballer than Toney. Watkins, like Jesus, is also versatile and can switch positions with our other forwards during the game. The fact that only Salah has more goal contributions than him in 2023 shows his goal scoring is better than anything we have.That said, I doubt it will be easy to get him having just signed a new contract. As a bonus, he is an Arsenal fan.
Onyango am in agreement with you about Watkins, but with the Villain’s under no pressure to sell this one is next to impossible.
Have watched Gimenez as you had suggested and the kid is on fire, think I like him.
Yes I did. He’s really good
I think Watkins is a different type to toney – Watkins is less of a target man (though decent in the air) and is best at running onto things, whereas toney is slower but has a bit more class and cleverness when dealing with high balls – better at making chances for teammates. Watkins is younger and there’s a chance he could continue improving to the point of being a top top striker, so he might be a better signing from that perspective.
I would prefer toney, of the two, as I think he could make the difference for us *this* season – it could “get us over the line”, whereas I think there’s a chance Watkins would take more time to adjust to our way of playing. Could very well be wrong.
One player I’m interested in now is the lens striker (Ely wahi?) – we were linked with him before and having now seen him, I think he combines the best of Watkins and toney to a large degree – of course coming from a different league increases the risk..
We desperately need him
While a better all round player is generally more sought after, we have an all round player in Jesus. Maybe what we need is a specialist striker who knows how to score and hold up play, let’s face it, the Norwegian meat wall at City is a one-trick-pony, but he’s very good at that one trick.
Whatever budget we have for the January transfer window must be invested in a solid defensive midfielder. If we fail to get one, our chances for success this season would be significantly compromised
Just think, Ivan Toney may be available from Brentford for the same transfer fee as Arsenal paid Chelsea for Kai Havertz.