Manager Comments Suggest League Two Striker Transfer is Back On

At the beginning of July, Northampton confirmed reports that they’d been in talks with Newcastle United with regard to the transfer of star striker Ivan Toney.

The youngster had been pulled out of Northampton’s friendly matches at the time, and it was believed a move could be completed in time for him to be included in Newcastle’s pre-season trip to America.

It was thought that that the 19 year-old, who we were first linked with back in October of last year, was set to be Newcastle’s first signing of the Summer.

Four weeks down the line and a transfer is yet to have been agreed. Reports suggested that injury concerns had potentially put Newcastle off from making a concrete offer.

However, the Cobblers manager, Chris Wilder, yesterday came out with a few lines regarding the player’s future, and they’ll be sure to interest Newcastle fans.

After leaving out Ivan Toney from Northampton’s friendly win over Exeter yesterday, Wilder had this to say:

“There’s been interest from Championship and Premier League clubs and we took the decision not to involve Ivan.

“Quite a lot of things have to happen for a player to be transferred or move on and everybody has to sort their own part of the deal out.

“Today (Saturday) we took the decision not to involve Ivan and we’ll see what happens over the next 24, 48 hours.”

Newcastle so rarely delve into the lower league of English football, and have often looked abroad for their incoming transfers. It would be refreshing, I think, to see us taking a risk like this (if that’s what you can call it).

United Chief Scout Graham Carr both played for and managed Northampton and still lives in the area, and is regularly spotted in the stands of Sixfields, Northampton’s home ground, keeping an eye on his former club.

Here is a video of the young striker in action: 

[Thanks to owzaQPR for the video]

Would do you think of Ivan Toney? Is he worth the risk?