Brentford resigned to losing Toney but holding out for £50m from Saudis

Brentford expect Ivan Toney to join Al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League, with the Premier League club hoping to receive about £50million for the striker.
A formal agreement is yet to be reached but both clubs are confident one can be struck.
The Saudi side’s opening proposal last week was a fee of about £35million — well below Brentford’s valuation. However, talks have since progressed and broad personal terms have been agreed. Toney, 28, was omitted from Brentford’s squad for Sunday’s game with Crystal Palace — their first match of the Premier League season — after Al-Ahli’s approach.
Brentford had valued the striker at about £70million at the start of the summer window, but reduced their expectations after a lack of interest to a sum closer to £60million. Toney, an England international, has a year remaining on his contract and was also linked with moves to Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.
Should the deal with the Saudi club be finalised, Brentford would not actively seek a replacement, with Igor Thiago — the £30million striker signed from Club Bruges — on course to recover from surgery on a meniscus injury by late 2024.
Brentford also have Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa, Kevin Schade and Fábio Carvalho, their recent signing from Liverpool who can play in forward positions.
“It’s a little bit similar to last season where we had enough in the offensive players, plus we have Igor coming back,” Thomas Frank, the manager, said when asked whether Brentford would replace Toney if a deal were to be finalised. “We are confident that we should be fine with what we’ve got now.”
Toney, who has scored 72 goals in 141 appearances for Brentford, was handed an eight-month ban for betting offences, which ruled him out of the first half of last season.
He scored four times in 17 appearances in the remainder of the season and played for England at the European Championship.
His record in the Premier League stands at 36 goals and 11 assists in 85 appearances.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have submitted a loan offer for the Arsenal second-choice goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
The 26-year-old Englishman wants to leave Arsenal to play regular football and has had interest from Southampton and Ajax, whose loan bid was rejected last week. But Arsenal would prefer a guaranteed sale to recoup some of the net £490million they have spent on players in the past five years. They paid an initial £24million, rising to £30million, for Ramsdale from Sheffield United in 2021. He has a contract until 2026, with the option of a further season.
Arsenal have lined up possible replacements, including Joan García, the 23-year-old Espanyol goalkeeper who has played for Spain at youth level.
Sa, 31, the Wolves first-choice goalkeeper, is under contract at Molineux until 2027 and received interest from Saudi Arabia last year. Wolves have also been linked with Christos Mandas, the Greece goalkeeper who plays for Lazio. Southampton have also been linked with Mandas, with Gavin Bazunu sidelined until next year with an achilles issue.
Nottingham Forest are interested in Eddie Nketiah after Marseille refused to meet Arsenal’s £30million valuation and instead signed Elye Wahi. Forest have also listed Santiago Giménez, the Feyenoord forward, as a possible target.
Nketiah was keen to move to Marseille, who had several offers rejected, the most of which was worth up to £23million. Crystal Palace have also been considering reviving their interest in the forward.
Nketiah, 25, has struggled to get a regular starting spot, having only started in ten of his 27 league appearances last season, playing 1,072 minutes in total, scoring five times. He scored four league goals the previous season. He made a conscious decision to bulk up and become a more rounded forward in recent seasons, having come through the academy as a skinny teenager who specialised in tap-ins.
He was close to leaving Arsenal amid interest from Palace when his contract expired in June 2022 when he felt that he needed a run of starts to show his ability. Instead, he stayed, signed a new contract until 2027, worth £100,000 a week.
Last summer, Nketiah was called up by England for the first time, and made his debut as substitute in a 1–0 home win over Australia in a friendly in October.
Fulham are close to signing Sander Berge from Burnley for an initial £20million plus £5million in add-ons. The Norway midfielder, 26, is set to have a medical in London on Tuesday. Fulham previously were unable to agree a transfer fee for Scott McTominay, of Manchester United, and Andre, of Fluminense, also a midfielder.
Burnley, who were relegated from the Premier League in May, signed Berge from Sheffield United for £12million last summer; he joined United for a club-record £22million from Genk in 2020. Berge came through the youth ranks at Asker, a Norwegian lower-league side, and earned a move to Valerenga in the country’s top flight in 2015.
Brighton & Hove Albion have bid for Matt O’Riley, the Celtic midfielder. The 23-year-old has had interest from Southampton, Chelsea and Atalanta. Celtic want about £30million for the former England youth international, who now represents Denmark. O’Riley joined Celtic from Milton Keynes Dons for £1.5million in 2022.
If Brighton sign O’Riley, they will be able to sell the Scotland midfielder Billy Gilmour to Napoli.
The club also confirmed the signing of Georginio Rutter on Monday evening. The striker’s £40 million move from Leeds United was confirmed by both clubs on social media, a few days after it was reported that Brighton had activated an exit clause in the French star’s contract.
The 22-year-old has signed a contract that runs until June 2029, subject to work permit.
In a statement on the club’s website, Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler said: “Georginio is a player who has the capabilities to get fans off their seats and really showed what he can do in English football with Leeds last season”.
Julen Lopetegui has been pushing West Ham United to try to sign Carlos Soler, although the club would first have to sell players to raise money and make room in the squad.
The Spaniard wants to bring in the attacking midfielder from Paris Saint-Germain in addition to the eight signings that have been made by Tim Steidten, the director of football, at a cost of about a net £90million. Lopetegui lost his opening match in charge 2-1 at home to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Soler, 27, was an unused substitute in his side’s 4-1 win over Le Havre in Ligue 1 on Friday. He has made 50 league appearances since he moved to the French club for about £15million two years ago. He came through at Valencia and won the last of his 14 Spain caps at the World Cup in 2022.
West Ham are open to offloading Vladimir Coufal, Kurt Zouma, Nayef Aguerd and Konstantinos Mavropanos, all defenders, James Ward-Prowse, Maxwel Cornet and possibly Tomas Soucek, all midfielders, and Danny Ings or Michail Antonio, the forwards who both have a year left on their contract.
West Ham could pay off Zouma, whose proposed move to United Arab Emirates side Shabab Al-Ahli collapsed after a failed medical. He is in the final year of his contract. Meanwhile, Ings turned down a move to Southampton.