Arsenal interested in £60m striker after Rangers talks collapsed

Arsenal are allegedly preparing to increase their interest in Brentford attacker Ivan Toney, three years after talks with Rangers fell through.

The 27-year-old England international striker has returned to training after serving half of his eight-and-a-half-month ban for betting violations.

According to the Mirror, Mikel Arteta and Arsenal are set to make a January move for the striker, with Brentford holding out for £60 million.

This would be six times the £10 million contract reached by Brentford in 2020 to bring Ivan Toney to the Brentford Community Stadium.

The ex-Newcastle United striker potential was making a name for himself in League One with Peterborough United when the Bees made the transfer.

Ivan Toney scored 31 Championship goals to propel Brentford to the Premier League, and his play in the English top division has apparently piqued the curiosity of Arsenal.

Prior to his May ban for betting offenses, the striker scored 12 goals in his first season in the Premier League before adding 20 more in the next season and getting capped for England in March.

Arsenal-linked Rangers discussions were held by Ivan Toney.

Rangers fans will recall that Ivan Toney was linked to both the Ibrox club and Old Firm rivals Celtic back in 2020.

While many believed the striker was closer to Parkhead than Ibrox, Arsenal-linked Ivan Toney has claimed he has held conversations with Rangers over a move.

Toney claims he visited Ibrox when he was handled by Steven Gerrard but wasn’t certain he’d get enough minutes to progress because of the competition at the top end of the park.

“I did speak to other clubs [before moving to Brentford],” Toney explained on the renowned podcast Diary of a CEO.

“I went up to the Rangers. I chatted with the manager there at the time, Steven Gerrard.

“They had two strikers at the time and they were looking to get another one in, so that would have been like four strikers and the formation they played, the majority of the time, was one striker up top.”

Rangers will certainly rue the move, with Ivan Toney going on to greater and better things and only Kemar Roofe remaining of the four strikers in the squad that summer.

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