Who is Ivan Toney? The Brentford goalscorer wanted by West Ham and Arsenal

Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
6 min read

Who is Ivan Toney? The Brentford goalscorer wanted by West Ham and Arsenal — © ProShots

Sometimes a player’s career is carefully and confidently planned out before him, with training and coaching in the academy directly followed by promotion to the club’s first team and from there stardom, glory and the realisation of every young player’s dreams.

However, most of the time that isn’t what happens. And while some players are lucky enough to stay at their boyhood clubs, most have to depart in search of game time, development and to prove that they’re good enough.

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One of the most obvious and successful examples of the latter is striker Ivan Toney, who has played for nine clubs in the first eight years of his senior career. And fortunately for the English talent, he’s thrived at just about every one.

What position does Ivan Toney play in?

Aside from a handful of games that saw Toney playing out on the right wing for Northampton Town, the England player has always been a traditional striker for all of the clubs he’s played for to date.

However, what kind of striker Toney plays as when he’s on the pitch has changed throughout the seasons. For example, in some campaigns in League One the striker had to adapt and play like a more mobile striker, while in the English Championship the forward now resembles something more akin to a more traditional target man or poacher.

How good is Ivan Toney?

The obvious question that surrounds Toney and which clubs he may go on to play for in the future is whether or not the striker can score goals at the rate he has done with ease in League One and the Championship in the top flight of English football.

However, that doesn’t mean we should immediately discount what the 25-year-old striker has done to date. In 124 games in League One Toney scored 61 goals and provided a further 17 assists. And so far in the Championship he has shown very few signs of slowing down with 28 goals and 12 assists in 36 league games to date.

What seems to drive Toney on more than most lower league stars is that he was once at a Premier League side in Newcastle United, who routinely loaned him out to clubs lower down the football pyramid before essentially letting him go for a nominal fee in 2018.

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Such has been Toney’s rise back up the English football leagues that even his former club have taken notice of his form and his clear desire to prove them wrong.

“He’s done very well. He had the biggest disappointment of all with being rejected,” said Newcastle manager Steve Bruce in December.

“It looks like he’s playing with that burning desire to prove people wrong. You have to say well done to him.

“He will be a threat because he’s playing with a lot of confidence. He will want to do his utmost to prove people wrong for letting him go.”

Ivan Toney’s stats for Brentford

Games	40
Goals	28
Assists	9

What clubs are interested in Ivan Toney?

Prior to his move to Championship club Brentford, it seemed as though the England striker was on the cusp of joining Celtic before the Scottish giants decided to sign Albian Ajeti from West Ham instead.

However, that hasn’t exactly slowed Toney down, nor the other clubs that have been keeping an eye on his progress in the English second tier.

Since joining the Championship club, the two Premier League sides that have been consistently linked with a move for Toney in the coming summer transfer window have been West Ham United and Arsenal.