Newcastle made a surprise decision to sell striker Ivan Toney to Peterborough on transfer deadline day in August 2018, but did not include a buy-back option on the player.
It is a decision that looks to be coming back to haunt them, with Toney tearing it up in League One, and sees him currently the division’s top scorer, netting 12 goals in just 17 games.
It is ironic that a talented young striker let go by Newcastle is leading the goal-scoring charts elsewhere, while Steve Bruce’s side have just one goal from a striker all season.
One of Peterborough’s owners, Darragh MacAnthony, was asked about a buy-back option on Twitter, and he confirmed that Newcastle do not have one, but that they do have a “hefty sell on” clause.
When Newcastle signed Toney from Northampton, he was regarded as one of the brightest striker talents in the country, and quite why he was not given longer on Tyneside is a mystery.
Selling Toney seemed a strange decision at the time
To sell him for a meagre fee of around £650,000 was a baffling decision, and his current form has seen some interest from other Premier League sides.
A report in the Sun claims Bournemouth and Burnley, among others, are interested in signing the former Toon man, which has forced Peterborough to slap a valuation of £13 million on the player.
The exact amount Newcastle would receive if Toney is sold is not known, but while it was sensible they inserted it into the deal, first refusal on the player would have been better.
If they were savvy enough to ask for a percentage of any future fee, it suggests the club knew there was a likelihood he would develop into a top player, which makes the decision to sell him in the first place more mind-boggling.
So it seems that Newcastle could be set for a slight windfall in January, but if they continue to struggle to find goals from their current forwards, even that may be a poor consolation for not having a proper goal-scorer at the club.
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