There are a few stories doing the rounds today about Ivan Toney, because he’s on the verge of an England call cap.
Joe McHugh over on VideoCelts has written a good one.
He has quoted Toney from a couple of years back, and I think that quote ought to be given consideration if we’re going to talk about him at all, and under normal circumstances I would really rather not bother.
I don’t get all frustrated over the ones that got away, not even the ones that we allowed to slip by due to stupidity or hubris. I never think about John McGinn except on those occasions where I need to recount that saga. I never think about Olivier Giroud, who was virtually a done-deal before his agent recommended that he stay in France.
Toney is a good player. He’s proved it.
But that’s not everything.
Joe quotes his April 2021 interview with a right-wing tabloid rag in which he said;
“I was actually very close (to signing for Celtic). I went up there and spoke to everybody. I was actually at the training ground and looking around and all that so it got to those stages. But I just don’t think they were too keen on signing me. I guess it’s their miss now.”
I guess it’s their miss now. Where I come from, we call it “dodging a very big bullet.”
Toney is on the hook for over 200 betting offences. He’s facing a ban of biblical proportions. He has been playing football for Brentford for months although everyone knows this.
And now he’s about to be capped for England? That’s how seriously they apparently take this issue.
But imagine for a second Toney in a Celtic strip, playing in Scotland, and facing allegations like this. Talk about a never end bad news day. We would be under the cosh every single week.
Every time he scored a goal the rival manager or some ex Ibrox player in the media would have a dig at us about it, and how he should instead be sitting in the stand.
This presupposes, of course, that he wouldn’t be automatically sent there the minute these stories emerged in the first place. My suspicion is that the SFA would have a panel convened and the long, long suspension handed out within weeks if it even took that long.
We would be buried under the odium.
We would be choking on it, and for what?
For a guy who’ll maybe score as many goals as Kyogo, who is a magnificent ambassador for us on and off the pitch and who will never generate those sorts of headlines.
I guess it’s our miss, eah? Yeah we also call that a lucky escape.
Capped for England he may be, but if those betting issues are true, he will be getting a huge fine and ban from FIFA. They don’t leave it to individual FAs these days. And the gambling companies are in bed with them too, as it costs them plenty of money, so there’s really no likelihood this won’t all catch up with him (if guilty). I’m very glad he’s not a Celtic player, though the truth is had we signed him he would probably have been sold on by now for large profit so it’s unlikely it would’ve affected us.
Might also have made us perform a bit better and kept Lennon as manager, which would’ve turned into a bigger, longer and more protracted disaster in my view.
I do not know Toney personally, but I am from Northampton and my friend knows a friend of the Toney family, he says that Toney Jnr has not been betting but his father has and there has been confusion over the names or something and that is what this whole investigation is about, I think the FA have pretty much cleared him already just not officially and that is why Southgate has saw safe to pick him.
Toney or ajeti was the decision at the time, with a sulky Eddie and unreliable griff, during a worldwide pandemic?
Yes we made a total bollocks of the decisions taken, but still the agenda of keeping the scum in business still took preference at the tíme as far as I’m concerned.
We have moved on for the better, so only a bad memory now.
As for toney, who knows how his career would have went if he had joined at the time, now I couldn’t give 2 hoots
I think it’s rediculas to call Griff unreliable he was a great player for us.Very seldom let us down it was a pity how things ended up,but definitely not unreliable
Your team’s deid mate, beat it 🙂
You must have missed his last 2 seasons under us. Unreliable is an understatement.
We were never going to pay the price the Posh wanted for Toney though I expect a compromise figure or sell on would have been agreed. Hindsight has proven it would have been a ill judged error though if offered decent money for him he’d have been out the door as mentioned above. “You never think about McGinn”, really. You just did. Again. No time for him at all. Celtic made the offer then chose not to spend the ever inflating price Hibs wanted us to pay that was actually more than Villa signed him for. If he loved and wanted to sign for Celtic he would have on a pre contract and waited. He didn’t so just talk until he could chase more money in effect using us as a bargaining tool. Actions speak louder than words and for me no great loss anyway.
Toney is a very good player., but he ain’t no Harry Kane. Kyogo doing just fine at the moment. It is interesting though that we missed out on Toney and Mcginn. I get the impression if Ange was manager at the time we would have signed they 2 players, anyways it’s immaterial now I suppose.
If they don’t wear the hoops,they don’t matter.
If they wore them then left,they don’t matter either.
Sure we all have favourite ex players…nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia,but they are of no relevance in the here and now.
Just a thought: I reckon big Kris Ajer would have fitted really well into Ange’s squad…in a more stable defence than the one he played in before,or in his original midfield position he played as a youngster. He could even cover at RB in a crisis..just the kind of versatility Ange likes…he had his poor games,but definitely wasn’t one the ‘down tools’ brigade like some in that horrendous season under Lennon.
Nonsense. First we probably would have won the 10 but we went for the cheap option in Ajeti. Secondly, we would have sold him by now and made an absolute fortune. If missing out on Toney was “dodging a bullet’ then spunking £5m on Ajeti was turning the gun on ourselves and pulling the trigger.