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I’ve written articles recently speaking about our naive recruitment and the fact that we have ignored proven quality and experience in our squad build, something that SO many other fans, pundits, pros, former players, and former Chels have also highlighted a lot.
This has drawn so much attention that a #ChangeTheModel movement was started by Chelsea fans this week too. And this movement is basically saying the same as the above and the below….
However, are Chelsea’s decision makers finally coming around and will they address this issue in the summer? If the latest rumour is anything to go by, perhaps they are…
Florian Plettenburg of Sky Germany reported on Wednesday this week that Chelsea are once again monitoring Ivan Toney from Brentford ahead of a possible move to sign him this summer. He also says that his fee will be around £30m-£40m.
So if Chelsea are interested in Toney again, maybe they are realising they need more proven experience?
This reassures me and gives me hope, not just because I am a fan of Toney and would rate the signing if we did manage to bring him in, but purely because it would mean we have put this daft under-25 rule to bed and we are actually looking at addressing our most pressing issue in this squad.
Like I said, I rate Toney, and I actually think his profile is one of the most suited profiles out of all the strikers linked to what we need. We need a link-up striker, one who can also be a target, knows where the net is, and has as top mentality, confidence, and experience of playing in this league.
This move at this price would be supported and liked by the majority of the Chelsea fan base, at least I think it would, I don’t like to speak for the whole fanbase.
Toney has only been involved in 13 games for relegation battling Brentford this season and he has come up with a goal involvement in almost half of those game. He’s scored 4, and got 1 assist. If you add his England goal then he has 5 goals and 1 assist in 14 appearances since returning from his ban this season. Imagine if he was put in a more attacking team like Chelsea, with the amount of chances we create (usually – not always), and how we prefer to play on the front foot. Even our counter attacking chaotic style at times would suit Toney. I have no doubt he would score double the amount of goals if he is in a better team.
Toney is a real centre forward and plays in a similar way to Harry Kane in terms of how he drops in to get involved in build up as well, creating space and room in behind for players with pace such as perhaps Nicolas Jackson if he played as a wide striker, Mykhailo Mudryk with his pace, or Noni Madueke who is also direct and on the front foot, to exploit. Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez’s vision would have a field day with someone like Toney to aim for, and Malo Gusto and Reece James would also have someone to pick out on crosses. When we need to go long from the back, Toney is good at hold-up play too.
He also has one thing in his mind, and that is to score goals. In the Premier League this season, he is taking an incredible 3 shots per game. It’s incredible because it’s for a team like Brentford, who are largely under the cosh rather than attacking. He is also winning an impressive 3.6 aerial duels per game.
Comparing that to Jackson, who has 12 goals and 3 assists in 41 appearances in all competitions (domestic and international) so far this season, and overall is taking just 1.9 shots per game and winning just 0.9 aerial duels per game, you can see what we are completely missing by not having the profile of someone like Toney.
Is Toney perfect? Nope. Are any of our options available perfect? Nope. Every signing is a risk. I just think it’s important to reduce that risk as much as possible by signing someone who is proven and full of self-confidence. I don’t want to keep talking about how someone is playing badly because they are a ‘confidence player’ – how about just stop signing confidence players!? Make no doubts, whether they will settle here or not, and signing someone with PL experience goes along way to reducing that doubt.
I’m certainly not Toney or nobody, and I’m absolutely open to other options and would be happy with other options too. But I’d also be very happy if we managed to get Toney this summer for around £40m (I think it might be a touch more than that though, especially if other clubs come in too).
He’s 28-years-old, an England international, bags of proven goalscoring experience, and he has leadership and captaincy experience, which is actually probably the most important thing we need to bring in that I haven’t even mentioned.
He ticks SO many boxes. Get it done.
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