Latics secure Toney swoop

Latics boss Paul Cook has been chasing a frontman for most of the summer, with an injury question mark still hanging over Will Grigg.

And the need intensified last week when Omar Bogle – along with midfielders Max Power and Jack Byrne – was removed from the first-team squad and placed on the transfer list.

“Ivan’s a player with a good track record at this level, having scored goals for a number of clubs in this league,” Cook acknowledged.

“He is young, a good athlete and fits the mould to come into the system I want to play, giving us further competition up front with Will Grigg and Nick Powell only recently returning to action.”

The 21-year-old joined Newcastle from hometown club Northampton in 2015, although he has made only two appearances in a black-and-white shirt since then.

He’s spent time out on loan at Barnsley, whom he helped win promotion from League One – behind Latics – via the play-offs in 2015/16.

Last term, he scored seven goals in 26 appearances for Shrewsbury before joining Scunthorpe, for whom he scored seven goals in 17 matches in the second half of the campaign.

He’s expected to go straight into the squad for Saturday’s League One opener at MK Dons.

Toney becomes Wigan’s seventh summer signing after Chey Dunkley, Terell Thomas, Christian Walton, Gavin Massey, Lee Evans and Callum Elder, with Latics having yet to shell out a penny on new blood.