Peterborough Director Of Football Barry Fry has confirmed that striker Ivan Toney wanted to sign for Celtic before making the £5m move to Brentford in September.

The Hoops did register their interest in the 24-year-old but were unable to match his asking price. He has subsequently gone on to score 14 goals in 16 appearances in the English Championship and Fry says he could be worth ten times what they sold him for very soon:

“Ivan wanted to go to Celtic. They should have pulled their finger out… Good job I never waited for them to sell Edouard because they didn’t anyway. The boy’s done brilliant for Brentford – and that’s what I expected. Ivan’s different class. Premier League clubs are ringing me up about him. Those clubs wanted to take him before but that was just to put him on their benches. Now they want to take him to play. They might get £30-50m for him if he carries on the way he is.”

Fry suggests that Celtic would have had to sell Odsonne Edouard in order to raise the money for Toney. However, it must be pointed out that the Scottish champions had shelled out close to £5m for West Ham’s Albian Ajeti only a few weeks before Toney’s switch to Brentford.

In hindsight, it looks like a massive error from Nicky Hammond and the recruitment staff. While Toney has been ripping it up in England’s second tier, Ajeti has struggled to build on a strong start, having failed to score since September.