Having not played a single minute of football for Brentford in the current season, coming back off an extended ban for over 262 betting offences, some might be justified in wondering why Brentford have slapped an £80m price tag on his head, but a quick look at his stats might explain things better. Having scored 21 goals in 35 games last season and a further 47 goals in the 2 seasons prior, Toney is a prolific scorer and with Brentford now sitting 16th in the table after 5 successive losses, his return to the team after 8 months out is, for them, sorely overdue. But despite his ban and his lack of playing time, the markets on the Ivan Toney next club odds have been buzzing recently, so let’s take a look at who the bookies favour.
According to BetVictor, at the time of writing, despite some recognisable interest from overseas potentials including ‘Any French Club’, ‘Any German Club’, ‘Any Italian Club’, and ‘Any Spanish Club’ – all priced at 12/1*, the majority of the market is made up of other Premier League clubs, many of which would be desperate to land a confident striker to bolster their attacking line-ups. At 20/1*, with a £10 bet paying £210, are Aston Villa, Wolves and Brighton, although all of them might struggle to afford such a sizeable transfer fee at this point in time. Next sit West Ham at 16/1 and Manchester United at 14/1*, preceded by Tottenham and Newcastle both at 12/1*. While all of these clubs could justify their need for a new striker, none of them have been linked with Toney before and seem unlikely to sanction such a large purchase in the January window. In joint first place, however, sit Arsenal and Chelsea at 8/1*, with a £10 wager paying £90, bolstered recently by Toney’s refusal to rule out a January exit as he mulls over his search to play for a ‘top club’. While the transfer window timeline is ticking down and Brentford seem unlikely to want their potential star player to leave, it should be noted that Chelsea’s last January window included two of the five biggest January transfers to date (Mykhaylo Mudryk at £62m and Enzo Fernandez at £106.8m), so ruling them out from an approach could be premature.
When push comes to shove, with a desperate need to pull themselves away from the relegation zone and having lost their star player for 8 months already, Brentford will be unlikely to sanction any exit unless the bid was outstanding at best. In addition, any new club would likely request that a repeat of his offences be part of a cancellation or compensation clause, something that would seem dangerously early in his return to football, to sign. Until the window comes to a close, the next Ivan Toney club odds market will continue to buzz and any further comments by the player will be likely to swing the punters, but for now, it seems that we are confined to a waiting game till we find out more. For more Premier League betting markets or to check out our other Transfer Betting Specials, check back regularly as we continue to deliver the latest odds and news, here at BetVictor UK.
*All odds are correct at time of writing and are subject to change
