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FROM THE GTECH COMMUNITY STADIUM – Ivan Toney may only have two games left in his Brentford career. Alternatively, he could have another 40 or so to come.
The 28-year-old has been heavily linked with a move away from the Gtech Community Stadium this summer, his contract up in 2025. Both he and the club have spared little time or effort dousing the flame of such speculation with gallons of petrol.
This time last season, it was easy to imagine the prospect of Toney heading to a club competing in Europe or perhaps even fighting for titles. Even with an eight-month ban from football on the way, that’s how highly-rated and thought of he was off the back of a 20-goal Premier League campaign.
But the pool of suitors is starting to dry up. Many major clubs are on the lookout for a new striker and the pickings are slim in that market, yet the option to buy Toney is becoming an increasingly unattractive option.
There were already a handful of doubts and question marks in the thoughts of interested parties in the first place. Are his best years still ahead of him? How would he look after so long out of the competitive game? Why should they commit to a player who has showed little public attachment to his current club?
And that’s all before you get to his current run of form. After firing a blank in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with rivals Fulham, Toney has gone ten games without a goal and has only grabbed four in 15 games since his return in January. The numbers are so startling you actually have to go back and check the full game logs to make sure they’re correct.
To describe this most recent performance as disinterested would do shame to office workers at 4:50pm on a Friday ahead of a bank holiday weekend everywhere. That’s at least a little natural to footballers at this level with little to fight for at this stage of the season, but Toney was actually the one player out there who did have something to fight for.
Disgruntled Brentford supporters murmured when he only broke into a light job when pressing in the first half. Their frustrations continued in the second and there were a handful of boos as captain Christian Norgaard handed him the armband. When Thomas Frank rolled the dice with his final set of substitutions, there was a genuine surprise that Toney’s number 17 didn’t go up.
Even beyond trying to win back the flattering glances of the Premier League’s elite, a spot in England’s squad for Euro 2024 remains up for grabs. It might not make much sense for Gareth Southgate to take two backups to Harry Kane, and if he does only dish out one such spot, it’s far more likely to go to Ollie Watkins – who has 34 (thirty-four, yes) more goal contributions than Toney this season.
Toney has just two games left of this season to prove his worth to the Three Lions and the ‘big six’. The signs aren’t looking promising.
