Brentford’s transfer decision on Ivan Toney could cost him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join Arsenal.
The majority of Gooners believe Arsenal will buy a striker during the winter transfer window. One of the attackers heavily linked with a move to the Emirates is Ivan Toney. According to the latest reports from Brentford, the phenomenal striker will only be allowed to depart for a premium fee.
According to Sky Sports, the Bees have placed a £100 million price tag on Toney’s head. Yes, transfer fees in the Premier League continue to grow, with the £100 million cap being frequently breached. Declan Rice cost Arsenal £105 million during the summer transfer window.
However, I don’t believe the Gunners have the resources to pull off another £100 million deal this soon, that’s a lot of money. With “concerns” about Toney and some questioning if he will be able to be an instant hit after not playing football for months, Brentford should be realistic with what they can seek for Toney’s transfer exit.
Unfortunately for Brentford, Arsenal also has other striker targets who play regularly and are available at lower asking prices, such as RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko, who has three goals in seven Bundesliga games (he had 16 goals in 30 league games for RB Salzburg last season), and Feyenoord’s Santiago Gimenez, who has 13 goals in ten league games.
If Arsenal are to recruit a striker in January, they must be certain of their striker choice; they should not be debating whether it is worthwhile to spend £100 million on a striker whose form cannot be guaranteed.
Sam P
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No club will pay even 70M for Toney. He’s good but not at that price tag.
We have Marcos Leonardo, Santiago Gimenez and even Sehou who are cheaper options.
Am I the only one who thinks a defensive midfielder is more of a priority? It’s worrying what could happen if Rice suffers a long term injury. Jorginho has not looked solid this season,Partey never seems to be fit and the hardworking Elneny has his limitations. Seems to me like that area is more of a priority than Striker,if the budget is limited.
You’re perfectly right. The midfield is the real reason we aren’t playing well anymore. It’s the reason Odegaard is struggling. The one decision to replace Xhaka with Havertz has been a horrible setback for the club.
To make the situation even worse, Partey around whom our forward line and defence operated is unavailable.
Right now, we need a valuable back-up for Rice and a valuable CM. I believe Patino can do far more better than Havertz.
The club however seems to be struggling to make a sale to balance their records. That’s probably why both Patino and Partey are evidently up for sale. i believe they will also try to sell Ramsdale in spite of the fan base advocating for him to regain his No 1 position.
The Havertz deal is looking to be a bitter pill for the club owners even though no one is voicing it.
If Arteta doesn’t want to use Patino, then obviously Arthur Vermeeren should be a good (risky) choice. Also they should go for Marcos Leonardo or Santiago Gimenez who are younger and cheaper options than Toney
Rice could well play as the box to box midfielder,while someone else is signed to be the holding midfielder. I was surprised by Havertz signing but I believe he still can be useful,particularly as a 9 because he offers something different to Jesus and Eddie. I think he has looked more effective as a 9 than in midfield. He may not score goals but he can win headers and bring others into play the way Giroud did. I agree with you regarding Santiago Jimenez ; he looks good from what I’ve seen. The only question mark is that there are many players who’ve looked good in the lower leagues but have failed to translate that to the Epl. Regarding the goalkeeper situation,I’m one of the few who prefer Raya-I think he’s just as good a shotstopper as Ramsdale but is more comfortable playing the football and dealing with crosses/high balls into the box.
I’ve heard of the links to Vermeeren but I’m yet to look at him.By the way,I think Timber was a huge loss. From the little I saw of him,I thought he had the skillset to play Defensive midfield. Perharps in the future, Timber can be used as a DM. I hope he somehow recovers fast and be available for part of the second half of the season.
Exactly right. Ideally we could do with at least one other top specialist central striker, but that is only IDEALLY.
In PRACTICAL REALITY, the paucity of top class defensive midfielders who are reliably fit , consists of Rice and er, well, thats it. No one else!
Far more importand to get quality back up for our SINGLE top class, reliably fit, defensive midfielder,. as the first seventy minutes at West Ham showed so starkly.
Whatever they write. There has to be a limit even in written texts. If it’s true that they put that particular price on this player, then there’s no need to talk. As everyone says Yes, it is good, but at the moment it cannot be priced at this price.
Perhaps we should look at the GF, GA and GD when asking where we need new signings or back ups in the PL as of today?
Spuds – 22 – 9 – 13
Arsen – 23 – 8 – 15
City – 22 – 7 – 15
Pool – 23 – 9 – 14
Villa – 26 – 14 – 12
Newc – 26 – 11 – 15
Brtn. – 23 – 19 – 4
MU. – 11 – 16 – – 5
For me, our defence looks as good as any, so wouldn’t that suggest that our defensive midfield is doing it’s job as well?
When you look at the attack, there’s nothing between the top four, but both Villa and Newcastle are outscoring us.
Not only that, but city (Haaland) spuds (Son) and pool (Sala) have proven goalscorers – quite simply, we haven’t!!
That’s where, in my opinion, we need to strengthen and Toney is a proven PL goalscorer…and Brentford ALSO know that, hence the reported starting price.
I also find it strange that MA has got so much stick for signing Raya and ensuring we have competition for the GK place and yet he is getting stick, once again, for (seemingly) not buying cover for Rice and / or Partey!!
I suggest he has, Elneny, Kiwior, Jorginho and even Zinchenko to fill those roles…while Nketiah and Nelson can only be described as back up goal scorers and Jesus, brilliant as he is, also isn’t an out and out striker.
So, in my opinion, a proven striker is THE No. 1 priority in the January window and Toney fits the bill perfectly.
Ken1945,the defensive midfield is doing its job but there is genuine worry because there’s only one player who has been reliable so far this season in that position-Rice. Without him we struggle. The draw against Tottenham is a good example. We conceded not long after he left the pitch. Our most recent loss also points to Jorginho not having the same physical presence. Partey is good but he has recurring fitness issues. I’m not sure about Elneny either. Rice can’t humanly cover Epl,CL and FA Cup by himself. You also have to consider that there will be AFCON in which Partey and Elneny are expected to participate.
Regarding the numbers you’ve mentioned,you have to consider that a team like Newcastle has had two games which skew their ofensive output. They scored 8 against Sheffield,5 against Villa and 4 against Palace.Mathematically the 17 goals in these 3 matches account for an incredible 65% of the 26 goals they’ve scored. It means they’ve averaged just over 1 goal in the other 7 matches-that’s terrible statistically.It’s the same thing with Villa. They have scored 4 goals on two occasions and 6 once. Statistically,Tottenham and City have more impressive numbers if you were to do in depth analysis based on parameters like standard deviation – our numbers are more similar to these two so I’m not worried about our attack/goalscoring. Statistics can really be misleading without proper analysis and context.
A SENSIBLE AND WISE COMMENT ABOUT HOW STATS ARE OFTEN MISCONSTRUED, as Kens far too simplistic post and his not in context use of stats shows us all.
You need to dig far deeper than the bald actual stats alone, that say nothing of context at all, to find the REAL truth.
Jon, they are NOT simplistic, as they form the PL as it stands currently.
They are ACTUAL figures and it doesn’t matter how far you dig down, as they will not change.
Newcastle beat Sheffield United 8-0, we won 5-0, so whats going to change that FACT?!
If these were the end of season stats, would you dispute them and dig deeper for guidance??
I RATHER THINK YOU TOTALLY MISSED THE POINT KEN! DID YOU MISS THE BIT ABOUT CONTEXT? Meaning such things as WHO did they play against? Home? Away? How many goals did they score /concede against such as Man City or Sheff Utd, etc?
I talked about far deeper thinking. A bit TOO DEEP for YOU seemingly! All stats, unless used in context, are simplistic and not worth using!
SIMPLISTIC IS WHAT I WROTE AND IS WHAT YOU ARE BEING.
No Jon, it’s YOU who is being SIMPLISTIC, simply because you cannot grasp the simple things in life, but try to make it seem like your some kind of mastermind.
How silly of you, at your advanced age, I would have thought you could have grasped the simple things about football matters, but it seems I was wrong.
Now, let me try once more, as they do in primary school, to educate you.
Onyango and I were discussing the defence, midfield and attacking options that MA, our manager, has…. KEEPING UP OLD BOY?
We then discussed, in a friendly and MATURE WAY, our differences… KEEPING UP OLD BOY?
I put forward the current, up to date PL table that showed GF, GA and GD… to help you out, that means Goals For – Goals Against and Goal Difference… KEEPING UP OLD BOY?
Now, these stats are based on the ten games played this season to date and, no matter how far one “drills down”, regardless of who has played who etc they are part of the FACTS that will decide who wins the PL… KEEPING UP OLD BOY?
There is no need for “deep thinking” as that will not change anything and, by doing so, it has obviously confused you.
What we were discussing was GF GA GD (just to remind you, that means Goals For, Goals Against and Goal Difference) so far this season and, believe it or not, “drilling down” won’t change that very SIMPLE FACT – something that you can’t seem to grasp – so I guess your not going to be KEEPING UP OLD BOY!!
Just as you failed to understand that the word “corrupt” has more than one meaning when used in “context”, you have failed once again, to understand what the GF GA GD (so you can keep up, that means Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference) was being used in this context and discussion.
Instead and as usual, you jump in, like a bull in a China shop, not taking time to THINK that the subject was about The Arsenal results (not the teams played) and how they might be used to show where our weaknesses might be.
I DO HOPE THAT YOU HAVE KEPT UP OLD BOY, BUT I SOMEHOW THINK THAT’S A STEP TOO FAR – THAT’S TOO SIMPLISTIC A HOPE.
Ken clearly you didn’t understand my statistical analysis. We only had two games that would be considered ‘anomalies but both Villa and Newcastle had more than two. They also had atleast one match where they scored more than our highest score (5).
Let me simplify this for you. If we had hungry people being fed by charity for 10 days.On three accasions they get more than 5 meals a day. On 7 occasions they get just 1 meal a day. Would you describe that as reliable?That is Villa and Newcastle. Then you have another situation where the hungry people are guaranteed nearly two meals a day – that is Arsenal.Over the course of a season, they’ll end up with fewer goals than Arsenal, City and Tottenham if current trend continues.
If these were end of season stats,still Villa and Newcastle would be below Arsenal. Look Ken, no one has disputed the statistics; I liked that you quoted stats because I rarely see people use them to support their point of view . I was merely doing analysis of the said statistics to provide context. I’m not a statistician by any means but my modest understanding of statistics is that anomalies like ( 8-0 ) tend to skew the overall outlook. That is something you just can’t ignore. I still maintain that our goalscoring is more consistent that both Villa and Newcastle.
What is even more impressive about our goalscoring is our 22 goals have come from 11 different goalscorers which is joint top of the league with Newcastle. It shows that the goals are distributed throughout the squad and that we are not really relying on one individual to score the goals like we did with say Auba or RVP. It’s worth noting that last season we scored 88 goals without what you’d call a prolific goalscorer(88 goals is sufficient to win the league by the way, going by past winner statistics;but you can’t win with the 43 goals we conceded).
Ken I’m not saying we don’t need a prolific goalscorer. I think we do. I just think we need a defensive/ central midfielder more and I tried to supply reasons why in my original post. This has been a terrific debate. I respect your position because I can see where you’re coming from regarding a prolific goalscorer.That said, I believe Saka ,Odegaard, Jesus, Martinelli, Nketia are each capable of 8-15 goals. Trossard, Rice,Havertz, Nelson, Viera and ESR should each be aiming for atleast 5. If you include the odd goal from our defensive players, you’re looking at a pretty impressive goal haul.
Let’s look at our scores then Onyango.
Take away the five goals against SU (bottom of the table) and the four goals against Brentford (fourth from bottom) and we end up with 14 goals from 8 matches.
I’ve given you four players who could play in midfield and omitted the player who MA has said he doesn’t know his best position yet.. Tomiyasu….that’s of course if this hypethetical situation arises where both Rice and Partey are unavailable.
All of those players have been (re) signed by MA, so we have to trust in his judgement, don’t we?
What he hasn’t done, is sign an undisputed goalscorer, capable of scoring on a regular basis in the PL.
He has resigned Nketiah and Nelson, but it seems the general perception is that they are back up squad players (much like Elneny I guess).
As for stats being misleading, the GF, GA, GD numbers form the position of the PL and that’s a fact.
The problem we’ve got is that our xg has gone down since last season, which seems to correlate with what we’re seeing on the pitch (it’s always a good idea to measure stats against the famous eye test) – over time, that will translate to fewer goals, if nothing changes. Our defence has conversely improved, which is of course, positive.
Yes,Davi our xg is worrying. Let’s hope Arteta has a plan to fix that.
Good player but only worth just north of 60 mil.
Agree Reggie, but we need him, or someone like him IF we are to be in with a shout for the PL.
But not for 100 mil. There is better out there for that.
new striker obsession is getting boring
for simpletons
the game is more sophisticated than just score more no matter how many you concede
Arsenal conceded 3 goals against West Ham, so this forum knee jerk every time to that is the strikers fault for not scoring 4 = we need a new striker who scores a hat-trick every game
non-sense
boring
predictable
grow up
Man City are best because they don’t concede 3 in the first place you fools