Toney

Ivan Toney could be offered a route back to England with Tottenham, Real Madrid are keeping tabs on Declan Rice, and Chelsea enquire about Nico Paz.

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank could look to reunite with 29-year-old Al-Ahli and England striker Ivan Toney – who he managed at Brentford – in January. (Talksport), external

Real Madrid’s Brazil forward Rodrygo, 24, is also high on Tottenham’s list of attacking targets. (Teamtalk), external

Arsenal have placed a 150m euro (£132m) valuation on England midfielder Declan Rice, 26, who is admired by Real Madrid. (Fichajes – in Spanish), external

Chelsea have enquired about Como’s Nico Paz, 21, but face strong competition from Real Madrid, who could look to re-sign the Argentina playmaker. (TBR Football), external

Newcastle are “relaxed” about Sandro Tonali’s comments on his future, and will not begin formal talks about a new contract for the 25-year-old Italy midfielder until later in the season. (Mail Plus – subscription required), external

Newcastle are in talks with Netherlands defender Sven Botman, 25, over a new contract, but Sweden defender Emil Krafth, 31, is drawing interest from FC Copenhagen. (Mail Plus – subscription required), external

Barcelona are planning to open formal talks with Manchester United over a permanent deal for 28-year-old England forward Marcus Rashford. (Teamtalk), external

Napoli could reignite interest in Manchester United and England midfielder Kobbie Mainoo, 20, in January. (Calciomercato – in Italian), external

Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Leeds, Everton, Barcelona and Real Madrid are among the other clubs interested in Mainoo. (Caught Offside), external

Borussia Dortmund are keen to re-sign England winger Jadon Sancho, 25, who is currently on loan at Aston Villa from Manchester United. (Football Insider), external

Real Madrid are hoping to sign Bayern Munich and France defender Dayot Upamecano, 27, on a free transfer when his contract expires at the end of the season. (Sky Germany – in German), external

Atletico Madrid are keeping tabs on Chelsea’s Spain defender Marc Cucurella, 27, but do not want to move for him until next summer. (Fichajes – in Spanish), external

Ajax have approached their former manager – and ex-Manchester United boss – Erik ten Hag over a return after suspending head coach John Heitinga. (Fabrizio Romano), external

THOMAS TUCHEL hinted Ivan Toney may have to get used to limited game time due to his “specialist role”.

The striker was an unused substitute against Andorra and had to wait until the 88th minute to feature against Senegal.

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Toney watched on glumly from the bench with England trailing 2-1 as Morgan Rodgers, Morgan Gibbs-White, Noni Madueke and Jude Bellingham all got the nod ahead of him.

He was eventually brought on for three remaining minutes plus stoppage time but was unable to impact the match, with Senegal instead scoring a third to win 3-1.

After the match Tuchel spoke to ITV and was asked to explain the reason behind Toney’s late introduction.

He said: “First of all it was more than three minutes.

“Second of all I think that Ivan is a specialist for exactly these situations.

“We created a lot of chances with Gibbs-White, with Ebs [Eberechi Eze], with Morgan Rodgers, and with Jude in fluid positions.

“I think Ivan is strongest when we have a phase where we have a lot of balls in the box and that was the case, so after 80 minutes we got him ready.

“Then we scored and they took the goal away and it took a little while longer than we wanted but that’s what he can give – presence in the box and a goal later in the match.”

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Captain Harry Kane started ahead of Toney for both matches and scored in both.

Toney was recalled to the England squad for the first time since his move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli last summer.

He last featured for the Three Lions in the final of Euro 2024 against Spain, but played just one minute.

Tuchel spoke of Toney deserving his recall ahead of the fixtures against Andorra and Senegal.

He said: “Ivan deserves to be with us. I’m convinced.

“He’s scored over 20 goals for Al Ahli this season, he won a major title – the Asian Champions League – and had a big involvement in the team in goals and assists.”

There have, of course, been many high-profile footballers who have made the move to Saudi Arabia in recent years.

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo is perhaps the most famous of them, but there’s also been Neymar, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, who continued to be selected by their respective national teams after making the moves.

Indeed, Toney could come up against his Al-Ahli team-mate Edouard Mendy when England play Senegal next week.

Looking through the list of squads there are plenty of recognisable names playing in the Saudi Pro League but, despite that, the overall standard of the league is perceived as quite low.

In Opta’s most recent Power Rankings the Saudi Pro League was ranked as just the 29th-strongest in the world, just behind the Ecuador Liga Pro.

“Toney has referenced it himself publicly that he has been very surprised by the standard for football in Saudi Arabia,” Gulf-based sports journalist John McAuley, who covers the Saudi Pro League, told BBC Sport.

“It is a lot higher than he expected and obviously that is because of the influx of proper international players coming into the league now.

“Saudi always had a very high standing in Asian football – Al-Hilal are the record four-time winners of the Asian Champions League.

“The level of local players is still very good but when you think of the defenders Toney is up against, he is still playing against Aymeric Laporte at Al-Nassr, Kalidou Koulibaly at Al-Hilal, Danilo Pereira, who came from PSG to Al-Ittihad – so he is still playing against European standard players.”

Regardless of the perception of the league he is playing in, there’s no doubt Toney arrived at this England camp as a player in form, having enjoyed a brilliant scoring run in the second half of the season to help Al-Ahli become champions of Asia.

“He ended up with a run of something like 19 goals in his last 19 league games, finishing two goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the Golden Boot,” McAuley added.

“The huge thing, and something that really integrated him with the fans, is he played a key role in Al-Ahli winning the Asian Champions League Elite for the first time.”

“Making the transition, the first moving to Saudi, it was a big one,” Toney told 5 live.

“Obviously, people are going to think ‘how is he going to cope and how is he going to be?’. As you can see from the stats, they speak for themselves.

“It’s been a good season with winning a trophy also. It was a big thing for me, I haven’t won many trophies, but being part of that one was a big moment.”