Ivan Toney is back, back on the score-sheet and back winning games for Brentford.
Having missed the first half of this Premier League season due to a gambling ban, Ivan Toney made his eagerly anticipated Brentford return in their clash with Nottingham Forest on Saturday night.
The 27-year-old was given a rapturous welcome to the Gtech Community Stadium, this despite the fact that, earlier this week, he issued something of a January come-and-get-me-plea to the game’s top clubs.
“It’s obvious I’d like to play for a top club,” Toney told Sky Sports.
“Everybody wants to play for the top clubs, fighting for titles and these kinds of things. So whether it’s this January for a club to come in and pay the right money, who knows?”
On the back of those, shall we say non-committal comments, Brentford turned a blind eye, making him captain, before introducing him to the crowd to the style of WWE legend, the Undertaker.
Brentford going full WWE mode and introducing Ivan Toney like the Undertaker is absolutely hilarious 😭😭😭pic.twitter.com/U7j06MxGk9
— george (@StokeyyG2) January 20, 2024
Having scored 20 Premier League goals last season, it only took the Englishman 19 minutes to make his mark this time around, bending a free-kick superbly around the Nottingham Forest wall.
The goal wasn’t without controversy, however, as footage showed Toney moving not just the ball, but also the referee’s foam before he took on the free-kick. Upon closer inspection, the footage also showed Toney appearing to instruct his team-mate Mikkel Damsgaard to distract the referee.
Ivan Toney adjusting the position of the ball after the wall had been positioned and set: pic.twitter.com/rKLx795xMs
— Caño Football (@CanoFootball) January 20, 2024
Brentford went onto win the game 3-2, after an acrobatic winner from Neal Maupay and Toney spoke of his delight to return after the game.
“It means a lot. I’m just buzzing to be back, scoring goals for the team,” he said.
“I manifest things like this. Before I left my house, I thought, ‘we’re winning today and I’m scoring’.
According to the rule-book free-kicks must be “taken from the place where the offence occurred” but his deviation went un-noticed.
“I think you have a yard either way. I just moved it and bent it around the corner,” said Toney afterwards.
“He’s a clever player. What more can I say,” added his manager Thomas Frank.
“I don’t know if it’s right or wrong. If it’s not in the rulebook, then that’s not good but I take the positive as he connected well with it to bend it around the wall.”
Meanwhile, Forest manager Nuno-Espirito-Santo had a predictably more definite view on the incident.
“Everyone in this room can see it was a ball displacement. Every goal must be checked. I don’t know if this was checked. It’s ball displacement.”
“I think we have to be a little bit more mature in these situations.
“It changed the position of the wall. Everyone thinks the wall was faulty but it’s not.”
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