Everton stance on Ivan Toney transfer after 'player's camp' hint at January swoop

A report claims that there is concrete interest from Everton in exploring a move for Ivan Toney in the January transfer window

Everton are being linked with a sensational January transfer swoop for Ivan Toney as manager David Moyes looks to cure his team’s striker woes.

Current frontmen Beto and Thierno Barry, a £27million summer signing from Villarreal have netted just once in the Premier League so far this season – a header from the latter at Wolverhampton Wanderers on August 30 – and in their most recent match, a 2-0 defeat at Manchester City last Saturday, Beto missed two big opportunities to open the scoring before Erling Haaland put Pep Guardiola’s side in front with his first shot of the match. Although the Blues believe that Barry offers lots of potential, the player, who turned 23 this week, is still adapting to the English football and has so far struggled to make an impact.

When his arrival was announced on July 9, Barry said: “I had good conversations with the manager. He told me I have the quality to play in the Premier League.

“He wants to do good work with me. He wants to help me on my road, and I felt the sincerity with him so that’s why I chose to come here as well.”

However, Toney offers proven Premier League pedigree having netted 36 times in 83 outings for Brentford – including 20 in 33 in the 2022/23 season – before making his lucrative £40million move to Jeddah-based Al-Ahli late in the summer transfer window last year.

A report from Football Insider claims that sources have told them that Everton have “concrete” interest in signing Toney in the January transfer window and although West Ham United are also in the hunt to bring him back to London, the Blues “are being seen by the player and his camp as a better fit” because he is “a classic David Moyes player.”

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The ECHO understands that he was a player on Moyes' radar when he first returned to the Blues at the start of this year but club insiders insist they have not heard of that interest being rekindled since and there are potential complications over whether he could come back this soon given the tax situation.

The 29-year-old, whose career record is 202 goals in 462 games, has kept up his prolific form in the Saudi Pro League with 23 goals in his first season and a total of 26 in his 34 matches so far, but with England having qualified for next summer’s World Cup finals, a return to the Premier League is viewed as his best chance of making the squad.

Toney, who has scored once for The Three Lions in seven internationals, has played just two minutes of action for his country under Thomas Tuchel, coming on as a late substitute for Myles Lewis-Skelly at the end of the 3-1 friendly defeat to Senegal at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground on June 10. In May 2023, Toney started an eight-month ban for breaches of the FA’s betting rules for players, reduced from 11 months when he was formally diagnosed with gambling addiction.

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