Thomas Frank insisted that Ivan Toney accepted the decision not to use him in Brentford’s season-opening game against Crystal Palace after revealing there was “huge transfer interest” in the English striker.
Toney has entered the final year of his contract and has made no secret of his desire to leave Brentford. Arsenal, Chelsea and Saudi Pro League side al-Ahli have all been linked with him this summer. But while Frank admitted a move was “not close”, he explained that the decision to leave Toney out of his squad for the opening game of the season was made by him and the club on Thursday.
“There’s a lot going on with Ivan at the moment, especially in terms of transfers. There’s a lot of interest in transfers. For all these reasons, we’ve decided not to include him in the squad,” Frank told Sky Sports before kick-off. “I can’t give too much away the day before. Of course Ivan is a top player, we all know that. He was fantastic for us for four years, but last season we showed that we can manage without him.”
Asked how Toney took the news after Yoane Wissa’s goal gave Brentford a 2-1 win, Frank said: “There was no problem. Ivan always wants to play. He was one of our best players for a long time. We saw last year that every good player leaves the club one day and someone else has to step in and do a good job. Every time Ivan hasn’t played, Wissa has been able to step in and he did that again today.”
Palace captain Marc Guéhi played the whole game at the Gtech Stadium despite Newcastle’s interest in him. Palace have apparently rejected the latest offer, worth up to £65m, but chairman Steve Parish admitted he has held talks with Newcastle’s sporting director Paul Mitchell and that other clubs have also shown interest in the English defender.
“We’re always very respectful when we get an offer for a player,” Parish told TalkSport. “We have a lot of respect for Newcastle United and Paul Mitchell is someone I spend an incredible amount of time with. I’ve known him for a long time, he’s been very, very good to me in football and we have a good relationship. So he and I have spoken about it.”
“The agents are inevitably involved and have an opinion, they are decent guys. We have had talks with other clubs who have also expressed interest.”
Parish also said Palace could abandon their interest in re-signing Wilfried Zaha as tax issues could scupper a loan from Galatasaray. “I would take Wilfried Zaha back in a heartbeat. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that will be possible this summer,” he said.
