Football Fry insists Peterbrough’s star striker Toney is not for sale
PETERBOROUGH United have dismissed Bristol City’s interest in Ivan Toney, insisting the striker is not for sale.
As reported online by Bristol Live, Toney is on Bristol City’s wishlist, alongside Charlton’s Lyle Taylor and Nahki Wells, of Burnley, as they look to add at least one forward player in the remaining seven days of the winter window.
Of that trio, Toney will comfortably be the most expensive with the 23-year-old having scored 17 goals in 26 League One games and drawing a host of admirers from across the Championship and also in the Premier League.
The Bristol Post understands there was a City scout in attendance for Peterborough’s 4-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday, along with representatives from Brentford and Celtic.
However, Peterborough’s message remains the same, that their prized asset is staying put at least until the end of the season.
Chairman Darragh MacAnthony claimed on Twitter he would “add them to the long list” when notified of City’s interest, while director of football Barry Fry delivered this statement to Peterborough Today.
“Bristol City have shown interest in Ivan and we do have a good relationship with them, but there is zero chance of Ivan going anywhere in January,” said Fry.
“I have had eight Championship clubs ask about Ivan as well as a couple from the Premier League, but my answer is always the same. There is not enough money in this transfer window to even tempt us into talking about selling Ivan Toney.”
As Fry states, relations between the clubs is positive with City having sold Mo Eisa to Posh last summer and Sammie Szmodics joining the League One club on loan last week. But to convince Peterborough to part with Toney, City are likely to have to make a serious offer, in line with their £8 million club record purchase of Tomas Kalas last summer.
There is a degree of conjecture over exactly how much Peterborough value the striker, publicly a League One-record £13m has been claimed by Fry, but that figure is unlikely to be matched by any club this month, whether Championship or Premier League. Privately, a fee in the region of £9m is thought to be the club’s baseline number.
But the feeling is Peterborough will simply dismiss any interest in Toney over the next week, confident he can add at least another ten goals to his total to keep them in promotion consideration and further his value for the summer.
Bournemouth and Burnley are two top-flight clubs who have scouted Toney and with Posh aware of the scope of the teams interested, they know they don’t necessarily have to sell now if they are likely receive significantly more for him in six months time.
However, the fact remains that every player has a price, and each and every club is willing to sell at a certain price point.
It’s now up to City CEO Mark Ashton to negotiate that fee, if he believes Toney is the man to fire the Robins up the Championship table.