Brentford director Lee Dykes has revealed that the West London club are realistic about the prospects of their players wanting to move to bigger clubs and admitted that David Raya would be allowed to leave for the right price this summer.
Multiple publications have revealed over the last few weeks that Raya, who has just a year left on his contract at the Brentford Community Stadium, is Tottenham’s top target to take over the gloves from Hugo Lloris.
(Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images)
This included an update from The Sun last week, which stated that although the Spaniard is willing to move to Spurs, the club are only willing to pay £20m for him while Brentford were demanding £40m.
The Times asserted on Sunday that Tottenham had even struck an agreement over personal terms with Raya but added that the Lilywhites were still not willing to pay the Bees’ aforementioned valuation.
When the question about the 27-year-old’s future was put to Thomas Frank a couple of weeks ago, he insisted that the goalkeeper was worth £40m despite having just 12 months left on his contract (The Athletic).
Dykes has now admitted that Brentford are ready for the possibility that Raya could leave this summer and will replace him if they have to.
When asked about Tottenham’s interest in their number one, he told The Beautiful Game Podcast: “We sat in front of David and said if you go beyond us, then that’s time for you to go and I think he is one of the best in the Premier League, which puts him as one of the best in the world.
“He’s at a really good moment as a goalkeeper and he’s well within his rights to say ‘look, maybe I just want to explore my options’ which is fine, no problem.
“We signed him again in 2019 in that first summer, again I’d seen him come through his loan spells in the lower leagues and really develop at Blackburn and it was a great deal for us, effectively we have had a plan with him and we’re ok with that.
“We’ll replace him if we need to replace him, or he’ll sign a new deal and he’ll stay or what will be will be.
“We have to understand that like Brighton, there are bigger clubs out there that could potentially have homes for these players and we are always of the mindset of if we have helped them to get to the very top level then we’ve played our part and as long as the club’s remunerated adequately for any potential transfer then I’m sure Phil and Matt will make the right decision.”
When it was put to Dykes that Frank had previously said Raya is worth £40m and when asked if there is a number at which the Bees would allow the goalkeeper to leave, the 39-year-old said: “The market sets itself so this summer will be a big goalkeeper market, there are a lot of goalkeepers who are going to be available.
“Phil and Matt will assess the valuation at the time. My point on David Raya is you need to pay double [£40m] because he can play number ten [with a wry smile]. You get two positions.”
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The fact that Brentford have already signed Mark Flekken from Freiburg means that the club are expecting to sell Raya this summer.
They are seemingly hoping that they can get a bidding war going for the Spaniard over the coming weeks but I suspect they would eventually end up selling the goalkeeper for around £25m.
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