Brentford are expecting to sell Ivan Toney this summer – manager Thomas Frank has revealed.
Toney was linked with a January move away from west London but Frank insisted no bids were received for the England striker.
The 27-year-old has recently returned to action after an eight-month ban for breaching Football Association gambling guidelines.
Frank had maintained throughout January that Toney, who made his England debut in 2023 and has hit 34 goals in 71 Premier League appearances, would stay put.
But now he seems to be bracing to lose one of his key men at the end of the season.
"It is relatively obvious that Ivan Toney will probably be sold this summer," Frank told Danish magazine Tipsbladet.
"It can be 'expensive' to sell your best player, but conversely I also know that this summer he only has one year left on his contract with us.
"We also know what he is worth. I don’t think there are many strikers in the world who are better than him right now."
Asked on transfer deadline day whether keeping Toney in January proved Brentford have grown as a club, Frank said: "I think with any player we have a contract in general so at the end of the day we decide if they leave or not.
"Of course money talks and we also know that we are a ‘selling’ club as you could call it – we know that is part of the strategy."
Frank doubled down on that outlook in his Tipsbladet interview, adding: "I would prefer to keep Toney but one day it could be fun to see him in a top team.
"This winter, we actually had no bids for him, but it would surprise me if there aren’t a lot of clubs interested in him."
Meanwhile, Brentford have condemned the "vile harassment" of Toney after the striker was the target of online racist abuse.
The Premier League club also labelled the response of social media companies to such incidents as "underwhelming".
Toney has previously received racist comments on Instagram posts and Brentford are now calling for more to be done after another case occurred.
"We are angered and frustrated to report that Ivan Toney has been subjected to racist abuse on Instagram once more," a club statement read.
"We have initiated investigations into this vile harassment which we condemn in the strongest terms.
"Sadly, this isn't the first time Ivan has had to deal with this. A similar incident occurred just four weeks ago, leading us to identify an alleged perpetrator whom we reported to the authorities. To date, we have yet to see any action taken against that individual."
The Bees called for anyone found to have posted racist comments to be prosecuted and help bring an end to such incidents in the future.
"In general, the response from social media platforms to these ongoing issues has been underwhelming," the statement continued.
"Their solutions, such as filters to simply hide the abuse may safeguard the players, but miss the mark entirely and do not discourage the offenders. Without real consequences for those responsible, the cycle is doomed to repeat.
"We do have faith that things can change. We appreciate the dialogue that we have with the likes of Meta but we call for more decisive and urgent action to combat online hate. We call for prompt investigations, and importantly, we call for criminal prosecutions.
"We will continue to work with the authorities and the Premier League and to support our players as we tackle this awful online abuse."
A Kick It Out statement read: "Brentford's Ivan Toney is among a long list of players who’ve been racially abused this season whether online or in stadiums.
"In addition to the trauma they’ve suffered, the players all want the same thing: action. That comes in the form of prosecutions, or bans or even education. But if nothing happens, other abusers are emboldened to do the same thing, or worse.
"We need more positive outcomes to these incidents from clubs, from leagues, from governing bodies and from the police. We work hard with them all to underline this message, but we ask that they all show how often they bring people to justice. We need more transparency."
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