‘Hopefully not’… Striker doesn’t want his £60m teammate to leave after he’s linked with Arsenal move

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Brentford striker Neal Maupay has now been discussing the possibility of Ivan Toney leaving the club amid links to Arsenal.

Maupay was discussing Toney’s future in an interview with Sky Sports and said it’s no surprise that clubs are now interested.

Arsenal have often been linked with Toney since the summer, but Maupay was very keen to see his Brentford teammate stay at the club.

Maupay said: “There’s no secret, Ivan is a top striker, he scored 20 goals last season.

“I think a lot of teams would love to have him, so we are looking forward to having him back.”

Maupay was then asked about Toney departing in January.

He continued: “Hopefully not for us, but like I said, it’s football, sometimes you have got to be realistic.

“Ivan played a very good season in the Prem with Brentford so I don’t know, but I’m sure there will be some clubs interested in him, but we want to keep him.

“A striker who scores a lot of goals in the Prem is rare, we have him, so we’ll see but hopefully he stays with us.”

Neal Maupay wants Ivan Toney to stay at Brentford amid links to Arsenal

Of course, Maupay’s return to Brentford was already intended to help with the absence of Toney from the squad.

It’s a pretty unique scenario in which the side have effectively already seen the future without Toney, if he is sold.

And given how well Brentford are again performing this season, they may be slightly more prepared to sell.

It remains to be seen just how serious Arsenal would be with any interest in January or the summer.

A £60m price tag was once mentioned, but that could easily rise given the levels Toney has shown.

Arsenal haven’t been too keen to make major moves in January since Mikel Arteta arrived at the club.

But with Marc Guehi also in strong form for his country last night, Arsenal may be tempted to make a move for one of their long-term targets.

There’s no doubt that a move for Toney or Guehi would strengthen Arsenal’s hopes of silverware this season.

And there’s similarly no surprise that Maupay would prefer Toney to stay at Brentford amid these Arsenal links.