I like Ivan Toney but Sky’s fawning coverage of his return was hard to stomach
AT THE risk of morphing into the Victor Meldrew of columnists, I found myself watching the ridiculous glad- handing and love-in that preceded Ivan Toney’s return last Saturday thinking: I don’t believe it!
This is a guy who brought the game and himself into an element of disrepute, compromised his club and put them in a position where one of their highest-paid and best players can’t get on the pitch and will shuffle out of the door at the first opportunity.
And what do we get from Sky Sports and Brentford? A massive love-in. A fest of adulation, light shows, entrance music — and to cap it off, manager Thomas Frank giving him the captaincy!
I really like Ivan Toney as a player and I’ve got a lot of time for him and his dad, someone I’ve spent some time with.
So I’ve always been a champion of Toney. When he came up out of the Championship, plenty of football observers said he was unorthodox and wouldn’t be able to do it in the Premier League. Utter rubbish.
He’s not unorthodox, he’s a formidable striker, a brilliant penalty-taker, superb at holding the ball up and someone with a great football brain. He’s an all-round top player and a very rare breed in the modern game, an effective centre forward.
But despite all that, I found myself watching Sky lather themselves into a frenzy about his return and thinking, ‘Hold on, something ain’t right here’.
He got himself into this position. He initially lied about his indiscretions, showed no remorse whatsoever, then appeared on podcasts insisting it wasn’t his fault and claiming he’d been victimised. Then he comes back and is treated like a hero.
My disdain, beyond Toney’s poor behaviour, is with Sky’s fawning coverage, blinkered sections of Brentford’s fanbase and their manager for giving him the armband.
That decision surprised me as Toney’s actions were clearly not those of a leader.
Amid the landscape of fawning admiration, he was criticised for admitting he would be open to a move to a bigger club, but I feel that’s an unfair stick to beat him with.
He was led down a path by the interviewer when he should have just said: ‘My focus is on Brentford and the future will take care of itself. Every player wants to play at the highest level, but right now I owe Brentford a debt so I’m going to get on with it.’
That’s the kind of attitude you would like to hear from him, but players are often intellectually unaware or incapable of handling such prodding and probing.
They are not aware enough beyond the end of their nose as to what is a reasonable way to behave.
He should have been taken to one side and told: ‘Ivan, we all know you’re going to move and get what you want, but the bottom line is you’ve also got to have a little bit of respect for those who have facilitated solutions for you alongside your talent, so here’s what you should be saying, process it and come out with it in your own way.’
I suspect nobody said that to him because footballers don’t take kindly to being spoken to in that way and you can only give them precisely what they want. Everyone is, of course, entitled to redemption, but we unnecessarily lionise these people, Jordan Henderson being a prime example of that.
I’m afraid the Toney love-in is yet another example of the ridiculousness of the game.
If this was any other walk of life — a politician or anybody in a public office or a position of influence — there is no way they would be received with open arms by a fawning media, but this is how absurd football is. Even when it came down to him taking his medicine, the England manager, who was ill-informed, got involved
INTEGRITY, and others bemoaned how unfair the ban was.
Authenticity, validity, discipline and the culture of the game are all about people sometimes having to do as they’re told or follow simple rules.
Ultimately, regardless of my feelings for him, Toney refused to accept that and was guilty of bringing the game into disrepute. I’m afraid this whole episode embodies some of the many bad things about football.
So let’s have it right, his return against nottingham Forest was not about the homecoming of an all-conquering hero.
It was about a very good player needing to come back and make good on the problems he in part created.
I hope his inevitable departure from Brentford takes him down a new, success-laden path which provides the opportunities his talent clearly deserves. And where his off- field behaviour reflects the superstar status be may well achieve.