The truth has emerged about Ivan Toney amid fresh links with a potential move back to the Premier League with West Ham and Spurs in January.
With speculation already ramping up ahead of the January transfer window, new information has surfaced from the player’s camp.
West Ham and bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur are both in the market for a new striker in the winter window.
The Hammers massively dropped the ball by failing to sign a pacy, powerful forward in the summer with ageing, injury-prone free agent Callum Wilson the only arrival.
Tottenham spent well in the summer – including £54.5m on Mohammed Kudus from West Ham – but did not sign an out-and-out centre forward.
Hammers and Spurs resume battle for Toney
That has meant Mathys Tel and Richarlison sharing the striker role under Thomas Frank with mixed results.
Although Spurs have had a good start, many feel it could have been even better had they invested in a forward.
West Ham certainly have not made a good start.
While Tottenham sit in the top three of the fledgling Premier League table, the Hammers find themselves in the bottom three.
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Graham Potter has paid the price for that with his job, and now it is up to former Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo to try and turn things around in east London.
Nuno has already warned West Ham’s board what he expects in January.
It took the Portuguese just one game to identify his top priority for the January window, that being a striker.
That need has become even more acute since, with the Hammers’ starting forward Niclas Fullkrug picked up yet another injury which is expected to keep the German out for some time.
As a result of their situations, both West Ham and Spurs have been linked with signing a new forward in January.
That has, rather inevitably, set the London rivals on a collision course over one target.
Not for the first time either.
The Hammers and Spurs were battling it out for Ivan Toney behind the scenes in the summer last year.
At one stage, it was said to be a straight shootout between West Ham and Tottenham for Toney’s signature.
In the end, though, Toney secured a lucrative move to Saudi with Al-Ahli, where he is said to earn £600k per week, tax free.
Toney has scored 38 goals in 54 appearances in Saudi since the start of last season.
He had also managed to retain his England place until this season, where he has fallen out of contention for Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions squad.
With a World Cup looming large at the end of the season, Toney is said to be desperate to make the plane.
It has been claimed that Tuchel has told Toney a return to the Premier League would boost his chances.
And that, it has been extensively reported this week, could be great news for West Ham or Spurs with both clubs said to be back in for the 29-year-old.
Now the Toney truth emerges for West Ham and Spurs after January move links.
The likes of talkSPORT and teamTALK have claimed West Ham and Tottenham are both hot on Toney’s trail ahead of the January window with a loan deal in the offing for the rest of the season.
But Hammers News can reveal the truth behind the Toney claims from a source close to the player’s camp.
And the top transfer source has rubbished any chance of West Ham or Spurs signing Toney in January.
Or any club for that matter.
Man United have also been linked as well as the Irons and Tottenham.
But Hammers News has been exclusively told that there is no truth to any suggestion Toney is open to a Premier League return to save his World Cup hopes.
Toney is ‘loving life in Saudi’ and as things stand those close to him cannot see him ever returning to play in England let alone in January.
“He loves it there, there’s no truth in the rumours about Man United and West Ham,” the top transfer source told Hammers News.
“No truth to the Tottenham rumour either.”
There is also the issue of tax.
If Toney was loaned back to the Premier League at West Ham or Spurs, even though he would still be contracted to his Saudi club, he would spend too many days in the UK and there would be a big tax problem.
Workarounds could be found, like when Jordan Henderson left Al Ettifaq for Ajax in 2024, whereby the player defers their wages and then when they return to Saudi Arabia get a bigger salary to make up the difference.
But a return to the UK, especially within the first two years, is a lot more difficult for Toney than a move elsewhere in Europe.
That is all a moot point, though, because Toney’s camp insist he is happy in Saudi and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
So West Ham and Spurs will have to look somewhere else for a striker solution.