TONEY’S already in the perfect place to live his dreams
Sit tight. Be the main man. Keep Bees up and earn a spot at Euros
FORGET challenging for the Premier League title this season or playing in the Champions League. If Ivan Toney wants to hit those targets one day, he should start by helping Brentford stay up.
In eight months on the sidelines, Toney has somehow become the answer to Arsenal’s and Chelsea’s goalscoring problems without actually kicking a ball. The man himself is naturally quite happy with this and is already talking up his prospects of moving to one of English football’s wealthiest clubs this month.
But Toney’s best way to achieve his dreams, not to mention making the England squad for Euro 2024, is surely to stick where he is for now.
Disregard some of the breathless commentary of the past fortnight that has Toney as a hybrid of Diego Maradona, Ronaldinho and Jimmy Greaves. Against Nottingham Forest, Toney showed exactly what he is: a highly competent Premier League forward with legitimate England ambitions.
Just like Ollie Watkins, then, or Dominic Solanke or Jarrod Bowen. But a £100million player who can deliver Arsenal’s first title for 20 years? That’s still a stretch.
If he were to move this month — which seems highly unlikely — he would be just another footballer at a top club. These Brentford players follow him and clearly hang on his every word. It would not be the same in a more talented squad, where they know what it is to compete in major European and international competitions.
If Toney had been at Arsenal when he received his punishment (232 breaches of the FA gambling regulations, remember) he would not have been cleared to give interviews about his ambitions to leave the club. There would have been no montage of his best goals on the big screen, with Jay-Z booming in the background. No fanbase treating him as a returning hero, rather than a bloke who missed a huge chunk of football because he broke the rules.
Toney thrives on being the main man — ‘the big dog’ as he has called himself — and at Brentford he can be just that. It is quite likely he will maintain his record of a goal every other game from now until the end of the season and have a strong case to present to Gareth Southgate, as well as the elite clubs he is so keen to join.
So sit tight. Wait. Finish the season strongly, drive Brentford into mid-table and earn your spot at the Euros. Be a good understudy to Harry Kane and look closely at what it means to be a world-class forward. Then if the offer comes and Brentford accept, join a big club early in pre-season. This is surely a far better plan than trying to jump now.
‘Ivan has performed very well for a long time,’ said Bees boss Thomas Frank, who has managed Toney in outstanding fashion. ‘His record is so impressive and his personality is unbelievable. He cares about all his team-mates and the staff and there is a bond. That is extremely important.
‘You can see his energy and positivity. He always has a smile on his face, he treats everyone equally and speaks to everyone. His emotional intelligence is sky high.’
Whereas Brentford have pinned all their hopes on the return of one man, Forest are without several key players. Striker Taiwo Awoniyi is ahead of schedule in his return from a thigh injury but missed this one
along with playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White and winger Anthony Elanga. That is a whole attacking division gone and to make matters worse, boss Nuno Espirito Santo has Willy Boly, Moussa Niakhate, Cheikhou Kouyate, Ibrahim Sangare, Ola Aina and Serge Aurier at the Africa Cup of Nations. When replacing Steve Cooper in December, Nuno said he wanted a smaller squad and now he has his wish, though not in the way he probably meant. With a possible points deduction for breaking spending rules on the horizon, absent players are not even Forest’s biggest worry. Unless Miltiadis Marinakis — son of owner Evangelos — has not learned anything, there will be no scattergun recruitment policy to bolster the numbers available to Nuno. Perhaps his long-time agent Jorge Mendes will come to the rescue but with the League watching closely, Forest will not want to do anything to alarm them further.
Performances are improving though and once Awoniyi returns, the future will look brighter still. And if the Nigerian has the same effect on his team that Toney does on Brentford, Forest probably wouldn’t even worry too much about losing the odd point. BRENTFORD (3-5-2): Flekken 6; Collins 6, Pinnock 6, Mee 6.5; Roerslev 6 (Ajer 90min), Damsgaard 7 (Baptiste 74, 6), Janelt 6.5, Jensen 6.5 (Yarmoliuk 90), Lewis-Potter 7 (Dasilva 90); TONEY 8.5, Maupay 6.5 (Reguilon 74, 6). Scorers: Toney 19, Mee 58, Maupay 68.Booked: Toney. Manager: Thomas Frank 7. NOTTINGHAM FOREST (4-2-3-1): Turner 6; Montiel 5 (Aguilera 86), Omobamidele 5, Murillo 6, Tavares 6.5; Mangala 6.5, Danilo 7; Dominguez 5.5, Yates 6.5 (Williams 62, 6), Hudson-Odoi 6; Wood 7. Scorers: Danilo 3, Wood 65. Booked: Mangala, Montiel, Danilo, Rui Silva (coach). Manager: Nuno Espirito Santo 6 Referee: Darren England 6. Attendance: 17,077.