Thomas Frank has revealed that Ivan Toney was left out of Brentford’s squad to face Crystal Palace on Sunday because “there is a lot of transfer interest” in the England striker.
The 28-year-old has entered the final year of his contract and made no secret of his desire to leave Brentford, with Arsenal, Chelsea and the Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli all linked with a move. While Frank admitted that a move is “not close”, he opted to leave Toney out of his squad for the team’s opening match of the Premier League season.
“A lot of things are going on with Ivan, especially with transfers – there’s a lot of transfer interest. Because of all that, we’ve decided not to include him in the squad,” the Brentford manager told Sky Sports before kick-off.
“I can’t give too much away the day before,” the Brentford manager added. “Of course Ivan is a top player, we all know that. He has been fantastic for us for four years, but we showed last season we can cope without him.”
Asked if Toney – who featured as a substitute in Brentford’s final preseason game, against Wolfsburg last week – had played his last match for the club, he added: “Who knows? There is interest, it’s not close.”
Marc Guéhi, the Crystal Palace captain, was selected to start Sunday’s game by Oliver Glasner despite continued interest in him from Newcastle. Palace are understood to have rejected the Magpies’ latest bid, worth up to £65m, but their chairman, Steve Parish, admitted he has held talks with Newcastle’s sporting director, Paul Mitchell, and that other clubs had also shown an interest in the England centre-back.
“We’re always very respectful when we get a bid for a player,” Parish told TalkSport. “We’re very respectful of Newcastle United and Paul Mitchell is somebody I have an incredible amount of time for. 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 had a chat about this.
“Inevitably, the agents are involved and have got a point of view, they’re decent guys. We’ve had conversations with other clubs that have expressed interest [in Guéhi] as well.”
Parish also said that Palace could end their interest in re-signing Wilfried Zaha, with issues over tax set to scupper a loan move from Galatasaray. “I’d have Wilf Zaha back in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’ll be possible this summer,” he added.