Ivan Toney has emerged as one of the best signings in the Championship this season as he cannot stop scoring for Brentford.
The Englishman came through the ranks at Newcastle before dropping down divisions to build a career for himself.
He was on the books of Peterborough United last season and he impressed enough for Brentford to sign him as a replacement for Ollie Watkins who joined Aston Villa in the last transfer window.
The owner of Peterborough, Darragh MacAnthony, has revealed that Spurs had the chance to sign Toney in the last transfer window.
He claims that as they looked for a striker that will play as a backup to Harry Kane, David Pleat found out about Toney and he kept urging Daniel Levy to sign the 24-year-old.
At his age, he would have represented a good buy for the club as they would likely have sold him for a profit in the coming seasons if he had failed to impress.
Spurs landed Carlos Vinicius on loan for the rest of the season, instead.
“David Pleat from Spurs wanted Daniel Levy to sign Ivan Toney,” MacAnthony said on the Hard Truth podcast..
“David Pleat is a friend of mine and Barry Fry’s and he honestly wanted Levy to sign Ivan Toney.
“Obviously they were looking at Harry Kane with injuries, they were looking at their lack of strikers, and they wanted back-up.
“David Pleat saw Ivan Toney as a no-brainer. He thought the cost was low, his wages would be low, he would be an easy addition to the Tottenham squad, he was a good age and if it didn’t come off for Tottenham they would probably sell him double the money to a Championship team.”
I can remember when we were after grealish/brooks and alike people were calling levy “bargain basement cheap. Ndom is up there with the best in the world as is my chairman n€w lan€ l€vy. We can’t sign them all
Watkins, Brooks, Grealish, Maddison! The list is endless. Marquee signings are all well and good and exciting, yet they can be a risk if they do not fulfil, just like Ndombele. I know he has improved but he is still not performing like a £200k a week and £50+m type player. Bit like Pepe at Arsenal, although that lad is looking a joke buy. There are very good young players out there and we shouldn’t be snobs and think we are too good to sign these players. Granted, we can’t sign them all and we have had our fair share of duds (Beware the letter N) but when you hear £100m for Grealish I can’t help but feel our esteemed chairman, and all round charlatan, misses the boat far too often. Still, I doubt they would go, but Dele, Winks and Sanchez plus £20m would be a good swap for the Villa lad.
Be ill advised to mention Grealish either!!
Thanks Dan.