Wolverhampton Wanderers were obliged to sell some of its star-studded talent to comply with Financial Fair Play (FFP) limitations during a disastrous summer, leaving Gary O’Neil with a weakened squad after taking over from Julen Lopetegui.
Due to the constraints imposed on the club, they were unable to locate worthy replacements for its departing players, negatively damaging their performance at the start of the season.
Wolves managed to pull off a surprise 2-1 victory over Manchester City on Saturday, injecting much-needed positivity around the club and possibly giving them the drive in future matches, despite having only one win from their first six matches.
Despite putting two past the triple winners, O’Neil’s team is still missing in the final third, with Fabio Silva and Matheus Cunha – two big-money additions – unable to cure their troubles with eight goals between them in 98 games.
Ivan Toney, a player they were connected with during his time at Northampton Town, is one guy who could have rectified their goal-scoring problems and given the needed dynamite in the last third.
Was Ivan Toney almost signed by the Wolves?
Brentford starlet Toney may be suspended from football until January after breaking the FA’s betting rules, but the Englishman remains one of the Premier League’s most sought-after players.
Chelsea, Tottenham, and Arsenal are after him as they prepare for a January bidding war, with the Bees demanding upwards of £70 million for the 27-year-old.
While Brentford look set to land a colossal profit from their initial £5m outlay in 2020, Toney’s path to the top could have been a lot different if Wolves had snapped him in up 2014 when he was playing his trade for Northampton Town.
Wolves agreed a fee of £500,000 to sign Toney from the Cobblers only for a problem to show up at the medical stage, with the club subsequently cancelling his transfer to Molineux.
Manager at the time, Kenny Jackett, commented: “There’s a number of things, but it didn’t come off. The exact nature of it has to stay confidential, but the interest isn’t there now. We wish the player all the best and we move on. I wouldn’t say the door is completely closed but he won’t be coming in this time.”
Toney has since recorded five goal contributions in as many appearances against Wolves, coming back to haunt the Midlands club after the medical mishap.
How talented is Ivan Toney?
There aren’t enough superlatives to describe his amazing finishing, but the “monster,” as one writer described him, has provided Brentford with the dynamite needed to stay in the Premier League, and it’s no surprise that big teams are circling for his signature.
Toney is a complete forward who can transform the goal-scoring fortunes of any club in the division. He is a beast in the air, rarely shirking an aerial fight, and a terror in the box.
According to FBref, in the Premier League last term, the £20k per-week sharp shooter showcased his ability to rise above defenders by ranking in the top 9% for aerial duels won against his positional peers, while his shooting metrics – the sort that Wolves could have utilised – are some of the best in the divison.
He placed within the top 11% for goals scored and top 14% for expected goals (xG) which are metrics that would only improve tenfold if the Englishman had the opportunity to flourish with more world-class players around him, a chance that may arise in the winter.
While the Old Gold finished bottom for goals scored last season with 31, Toney’s total of 20 saw only Harry Kane and Erling Haaland finish ahead of him in the scoring charts.
To put it into perspective, Wolves’ top scorers were two players who departed the club this summer, Ruben Neves and Daniel Podence, who finished on six each – a telling indictment of their blunt edge in the final third, and one that Toney would have sharpened tremendously.
