Could Ivan Toney come to Spurs?
Brentford’s Ivan Toney had 20 goals and four assists across 33 appearances in the Premier League last season.
The English striker is currently serving a ban on play after he was found to have breached FA’s betting rules. However, the 27-year-old will be returning January 17th, just in time to get picked up by one of the many clubs eyeing him.
It seems that Arsenal and Chelsea are the two clubs at the forefront of the signing race, as Spurs have yet to be seriously linked with the player.
According to Italian sports journalist Farbrizio Romano, the asking price would be relatively high comapred to what Spurs spent on other players this past window:
“Not less than £65 million. They want more than this but the feeling of sources is that for £65 million a deal could be done.”
Yet again, this isn’t far off from Richarlison’s fee (£58 million) in the summer of 2022. Spurs still have money from the Harry Kane transfer which could go towards making the deal happen.
One of the biggest questions with new signings, however, is whether or not the financial investment in a player will pay off.
Certainly, Spurs’ position in the table and the productivity of the attacking players will need to be taken into consideration come January.
Currently, Heung-min Son is playing phenomenally in the number nine role, with eight goals and one assist registered across 10 games. Nevertheless, we have yet to see how this Spurs squad might do if there was a true striker filling in that role, freeing up Sonny to play in his normal position on the left wing.
At present, there’s only one player in the league (Erling Haaland) with more goals, so it’s equally hard to say that Toney would be able to do better or even match Sonny’s output.
The main area of concern for Tottenham seems to be in the center back role where Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, while exceptional, have played nearly every minute. Eric Dier has also been informed that he’s not in Ange Postecoglou’s plans, so a replacement/back-up option for the starters will be necessary.
There’s also been speculation around a new midfielder, especially with Pierre Hojbjerg looking to go elsewhere, although his future at the club is still rather unclear.
Regardless of the order of priorities, if Spurs want to sign a new number nine, Toney is the current best option. Federico Chiesa has recently been linked with the North London club, however he has been injury prone in recent years and has yet to be tested at the English level of competition. His stats as well do not come close to matching Toney’s.
The two players are only a year apart in age. For £10-15 million more, it seems that Ivan Toney is the far better option for Spurs to go with if they are in fact considering a striker replacement.