Come on Brentford, it’s a bit rich to play the loyalty card now
I HAVE to say Ivan Toney’s timing in wanting to leave Brentford for a better club is unfortunate to say the least.
But I’m not having all this criticism that he’s ungrateful or has no loyalty, because to me, loyalty is a two-way street – and Brentford SHOULD be sticking by and supporting him.
It’s an interesting situation. If it’s true that he has told the club he wants to go, with Arsenal and Chelsea clearly very strongly in the running to sign him when his ban is finally over in January, then yep, the timing doesn’t do him any favours.
But have Brentford really gone out on a limb and ‘stuck by him’, done something honourable by backing him?
Really, what else could and would they have done? Sack him? Don’t make me laugh. If their principles were that strong that they dumped a player because he broke betting rules, then they’d be kissing goodbye to, what, £60million at least. Probably more in today’s market.
And they’d be kissing goodbye to the whole structure of the club, because it would undermine what they are set up to do, which is to show promising young players they have created a pathway which develops them, takes them to a much higher level and then lets them join a bigger club.
Brentford use that talent to help them stay in the Premier League, and then collect a big fee to invest in more talent to develop the club further.
It’s an admirable concept, they work it absolutely brilliantly and fair to play to them.
As a club, they are actually giving the rest of football a blueprint on how it’s done, to take a team to the top level and keep them there.
I’d say only Brighton are ahead of them in that respect, and it’s an absolutely fabulous model which they’ve honed to perfection. But you can’t have it all ways.
You can’t demand loyalty when it suits you, but then sell players to boost profits or keep the club afloat. As I say, loyalty is a two-way thing,
You need to demonstrate to players that you’ll be fair if they can really improve their level.
And no doubt both Arsenal and Chelsea offer the chance to do that.
Are they potentially top four sides? Yep. Are Brentford? Nope. Probably never – and that’s no disrespect to them, because as I say, they’re the benchmark at what they actually do.
So don’t get carried away about Toney being ungrateful or greedy, or whatever else he’s being accused of.
He’s a 27-year-old who’s played quite a large part of his career outside the top level, someone who’s done his hard yards with the likes of Wigan, Shrewsbury and Scunthorpe. This is his chance to go to a top club and play the best years of his career at the very top level.
I can’t blame him for that. I know he felt he didn’t go to the Qatar World Cup because of his looming ban.
But I think now, if he gets his head down, works hard and shows a bit of contrition, he’ll be an England player.
In that sense, he’s better being quiet and pushing for a move behind the scenes, not in public.
I’m looking around at the Premier League landscape, and can’t name too many top-class English centre-forwards. Harry
Kane is the obvious No.1, then there’s Callum Wilson, who’s playing well and scoring goals in a good team. Ollie Watkins blows a bit hot and cold, and has talent, while Dominic Calvert-lewin has a long way to go to prove he can get back to that top level.
Beyond that, there aren’t many names who spring to mind.
So Toney will be a shoo in-if he’s scoring goals at Arsenal or Chelsea, and Gareth Southgate (left with Toney) isn’t going to let ‘principles’, whatever they are, get in the way of making his team better.
On that note, I’d also say, he’s doing his time. He’s missing six months of his prime, because of his betting ban and how much more do you want him to pay?
To me, it would have been better to give him some counselling, as he apparently said he was addicted to gambling.
Help him in that regard, give him support, not punishment.
I know there are a few players in the past who would really have appreciated that, instead of the blunt instrument of a ban.
But he’ll be back, and he’ll go to a top club when his ban is over.
That’s the way of the football world these days.
If clubs want to sell players, they generally go. If players want to leave, they generally go.
All the rest is just noise, and I wouldn’t bother wasting too much
energy on it.