Thomas Frank has clarified comments he is reported to have made yesterday regarding the future of striker Ivan Toney.
The quotes suggested Frank believed the England international would be sold at the end of the season – his contract expires in the summer of 2025 – but he insisted today that is just one avenue open to the club.
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Toney was this morning heavily linked with a summer move to Manchester United, with Arsenal and Chelsea also thought to be interested.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s trip to Wolves, Frank said: “You always have to be aware of translation. Google translate is not always the best.
“It’s the same message I said the whole time. I would love him to stay forever, but the reality is he has one year left on his contract in the summer.
“I think he’s been pretty open about maybe playing for a top club in the future, so I think there are a couple of scenarios; he leaves in the summer, leaves in the winter or he stays.
“If he leaves whenever it will be fantastic to see him playing for a top club.”
With Toney suspended until January due to breaches of betting regulations, Brentford have struggled this season and sit just three points above the relegation zone.
Frank accepts his team have underperformed, particularly defensively, but is confident they have turned a corner.
He added: “I like to win football matches, I’m very aware that the stats on paper are not great.
“We look into our performances and especially the last three have been very positive. We beat Nottingham [Forest] and lost to two of the best teams in the world; Tottenham and Manchester City.
“We did a lot of things right and we need to look into that but we also need to look into what we can do better.
“Defending has been a big focus since I took over five years ago and we were a free floating Championship side.
“We are conceding too many goals in my opinion. We need to look into what we can do to avoiding conceding goals. We are going in the right direction.”
