I have to be honest that my scepticism surrounding Ivan Toney was high ahead of this season. Strikers who flourish in the Championship have found the step up to the Premier League a very difficult task.
Arsenal’s search for a striker naturally has seen players linked with the club after solid years in the second tier of English football. In fact, suggestions that Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 38 goals this season should prompt interest from the Gunners have already surfaced. Arsenal were linked with Toney’s predecessor Ollie Watkins and he, like Mitrovic, struggled to replicate his consistent goalscoring form when arriving in the top flight. Toney though could be different.
Brentford looked a side to have done enough to avoid entering the relegation scrap after some impressive early results. However, Toney’s four-goal contributions in the first six games suddenly stopped. Brentford won just three of the next thirteen games that Toney started in, of which he scored twice. The Bees suddenly looked in trouble but a transfer in January has made a massive difference.
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Signed on a free, Christian Eriksen has come into the team and his impact cannot be ignored. In his four starts so far, Brentford have won all four. He has a goal and an assist including a strike against Chelsea in a 4-1 victory. Meanwhile, in these four games, Toney’s output has skyrocketed. The forward scored six goals, including a hat-trick against Norwich City in a 3-1 win away from home, and chipped in with an assist against Chelsea and West Ham.
It has shown that given the top class creativity behind him, the strong forward can deliver. It makes one imagine what might be possible with Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Emile-Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli around Toney. However, there remain obstacles for me. Toney has not been without his controversies this season and has been captured belittling his club Brentford.
A video circulated where he was captured saying ‘f*** Brentford.’ He apologised on social media and claimed that the video had been edited. “I am aware of a video that was published on social media … in it, I used language that was unacceptable,” he wrote on Twitter. “The video was cut short and edited, but I have to accept the impact this has had and I realise I should not have put myself in that position.
“I have explained to the gaffer what happened and apologised to him but I also want to apologise to all Brentford fans. I respect the way you all support the team and I have to say how much I love playing for the club and for you. I’ll be back at training next week, working hard to score more goals to win us more games for the rest of the season.”
However, less than two months later, another video circulated of Toney being interviewed in his car and described Brentford as “nowhere exciting.” These two incidents have certainly impacted the striker’s image.
Mikel Arteta has not looked kindly on players with problems off the field. Only recently Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of the captaincy and then let go. He joined Barcelona on a free deal. Matteo Guendouzi too has now joined Marseille who will permanently sign the Frenchman in the summer after he failed to meet the expectations of Arteta.
Lastly, Mesut Ozil was gradually exiled from first-team action and then departed in January of 2021 after not being registered in the club’s Premier League squad for ‘footballing reasons’ described Arteta. Would Toney be the profile Arteta wants? He has said if a player is scoring regularly, he can look past a line being crossed if a player is scoring a high amount of goals.
“I don’t think I am too hard on that to be fair. I don’t know the perceptions externally, but there are some minimums, and there is a line that you cannot cross. If somebody’s going to cross it because he’s scored 25 or 30 goals that dressing room has to accept it,” Arteta said.
“First of all, you have to score 25 or 30 goals, or 40, or 50 and maybe they say, ‘Listen, guys, don’t train,’ or ‘you train once a week and you play.' They will decide. If they’re happy with that, with me there is no problem. If they’re happy with that and they can live with that it’s OK. You have to do it though.”
Toney still has three years left on his Brentford deal come June. If he is to move on, the Bees would likely demand a sizeable fee, although he is valued between £12.5million and £16.6million on the CIES Football Observatory.
