Ivan Toney bound for Arsenal but Brentford know where the bargains are buried

15 February 2024 , 12:14

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Ivan Toney is likely to leave Brentford this summer (Image: Getty Images)

Bargain hunts were once the preserve of antique dealers scouring car boot sales and auction rooms for tat which turned out to be a Rembrandt masterpiece.

But never mind that plant pot which is actually a priceless Ming vase, let’s hear it for Brentford’s recruitment team - you know, the scouts who came up with Ivan Toney, Bryan Mbeumo and, before them, Ollie Watkins.

The Bees are resigned to losing Toney this summer, and it remains a straight race between Arsenal or Chelsea for his signature - with the Gunners clear favourites to breast the tape. Toney will cost up to £80million, but his goals could take the Gunners to the next level.

And Thomas Frank has already struck a pre-emptive blow in the market by landing Brazilian striker Igor Thiago on a five-year contract from Club Bruges in a deal worth up to £30million.

And the chances are that Thiago will be a success at the Gtech Community stadium - because Frank doesn’t sign many duds.

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If Toney was such an obvious target for clubs preaching ambition, why was there not a queue of Premier League giants on his trail when Brentford landed him for just £5m four years ago?

Hands up if you knew Mbeumo was going to be a star when the Bees brought him to west London in 2019 after making only a handful of appearances for Troyes in France?

Thomas Frank (left) has turned Ivan Toney into a star (Getty Images)

If your hand’s up, you’re almost certainly fibbing. Nobody had heard of Mbeumo - out injured since Christmas - but he’s closing in on a half-century of goals for Brentford.

And the Bees made a tidy profit on Watkins, turning a £1.8m punt into a £28m asset in the space of three years.

So the expectation is that Thiago, who has scored 16 goals in 24 games for Bruges this season, will step into Toney’s boots when the 22-year-old joins Brentford in July.

"We have signed a key player for a key position. Thiago is a very exciting striker who fits the role in our team," said Frank.

Brentford have signed Igor Thiago (BRUNO FAHY/Belga/AFP via Getty Images)

"He is hard working and a very good pressing player. He is also a physical presence, very good in the box and can link the play. I'm very pleased that we have been proactive as a club; big credit to [owner] Matthew Benham, [director of football] Phil Giles and [technical director] Lee Dykes for the hard work they have done. We are ahead of the curve.”

Thiago is not an unknown coming to Brentford on the back of a people smugglers’ lorry. They have tracked him since he scored 15 goals and supplied eight assists in one season for Ludogorets in Bulgaria. His stats and profile were there, in plain sight, for anyone who dared to look.

And there are more hidden gems, at home and abroad, for progressive clubs like the Bees whose budget only stretches to rough diamonds, not the crown jewels.

So if their promise is converted into goals, in future we may become more familiar with Royal Antwerp’s George Ilenikhena, exciting Lorient forward Eli Junior Kroupi or quicksilver Udinese forward Simone Pafundi (currently on loan at Lausanne in Switzerland).

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Bryan Mbeumo was unknown when he arrived at Brentford (Getty Images)

They are all teenagers ripening on the vine in leagues infiltrated by more scouts than Robert Baden-Powell could ever have imagined.

But as Brentford prepare to wave goodbye to Toney - and what astonishing value he has been for them, even factoring in his eight-month exile on the naughty step for gambling infringements - with Frank, Giles and Dykes working in perfect synergy, one thing is certain.

Starting with Thiago, there are plenty more where he came from.

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Mike Walters