'Toney ready to make mark after betting nightmare as focus returns to football'

08 January 2024 , 07:00

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Toney is ready to make his mark with Brentford (Image: The Mirror)

To sit with Ivan Toney at his home last week was to chill with a striker keeping his head as the noise around him reaches a crescendo.

After eight months that for him must have seemed like an eternity, here was a man focused on the things he could control. A man dreaming of a match winning goal against Nottingham Forest on January 20 and a subsequent momentum that he hopes will lead to this summer’s European Championship after the investigation around his gambling issue ruled him out of the Qatar World Cup.

For some, his refusal to discuss the ways in which he has addressed it will remain an issue. Others - particularly those with a personal insight - will feel that it is best dealt with away from the media gaze, a day at a time.

The beneficiary of an intense training regime out in America, specially arranged by agents the Stellar Group, 5ft 11in Toney appeared in fantastic physical condition.

Those initial observations would be confirmed with his stunning Saturday hat-trick for Brentford B against Southampton’s Under-23s on Saturday. If he is to be the man to shoot the Bees out of their ugly run of seven Premier League defeats in their last eight then Toney is most definitely ready.

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If it is to be that either Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United or maybe even an ambitious Aston Villa will invest in him to address their offensive shortcomings this month, the 27-year-old is also ready.

And yet his sharpness would not be my big takeaway from our time together at the heart of his close circle. Here was a man for whom his absence from the nonsense of football was an opportunity to focus on the things that matter to him.

The family that picked up the pieces after his world was shattered by that independent panel suspension last May. His dad Ivan Sr who kept the striker’s head straight and continued as a guiding light, both in Toney jr’s life and his football career.

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The marksman’s mental health and his opportunity to address, away from the media gaze, the issues that led to one of the longest bans for a Premier League player for many a year. And life beyond a playing career during which he has continually defied the odds.

A nightmare that had cost him a World Cup in Qatar and half a season of football could easily have left Toney lashing out at the world and railing against officialdom.

Instead, surrounded by his kids and his loved ones, he is at peace, focused on that Brentford home game against Forest. Others can debate whether he can simply drop straight into a battle-hardened Premier League mid-season or whether he is worth Brentford’s supposed £100million asking price.

After a long ban preceded by an even lengthier investigation, Toney’s nightmare is over. Now he is ready to focus solely on football.

Darren Lewis