Forget a hat-trick, perhaps four, five or even six I couldn’t see this one single fixture changing my view on whether Ivan Toney should sign for Arsenal this summer. He might indeed want to transfer, in fact, it is almost certain he is craving the move from how he has spoken in interviews regarding the topic.
"You can never predict when is the right time to move elsewhere, but I think it's obvious I want to play for a top club," he said. «Everybody wants to play for a top club, that is fighting for titles. Whether it's this January that is the right time for a club to come in and pay the right money, who knows?”
Bear in mind this was in the winter when his side, Brentford, had been battling relegation, had lost Bryan Mbuemo to injury and were relying on Toney’s goals to secure them a place in the Premier League next season. They were in the process of securing a dealfor Club Brugge’s Igor Thiago who will join in the summer, assumedly to replace Toney, and yet it seemed the England international was keen to make it clear not to rule out a winter exit.
No one came in for Toney in January with Brentford’s right to demand a massive fee proving too much of a blockade for anyone to muster a bid. Arsenal have been keen and Mikel Arteta is said to appreciate Toney’s qualityalthough that has somewhat waned in the past couple of months.
Few are talking about the Gunners having a goal problem at the moment with 31 goals in their last seven games, breaking records for strikes on the road and looking to score at least four for a fifth Premier League game in a row. Kai Havertz has been excellent and rightly deserves to stay in the centre-forward role.
But no, this is not a case of Havertz over Toney because for me I would still like
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