Peterborough United’s director of football Barry Fry has claimed that 14-goal Brentford sensation Ivan Toney “would’ve walked to Celtic” in the summer.
Toney was the subject of heavy interest from Parkhead several months ago. However, in the end, Celtic splashed out £5million on West Ham United’s Albian Ajeti (Sky Sports) whilst Toney moved to Brentford for an initial £5m fee that could rise to £10m (Sky Sports).
Ajeti started on fire at Parkhead with five goals in his first six Premiership matches, but his last strike came all the way back in September’s 3-0 win over Hibs. Toney, meanwhile, has bagged a stupendous 14 goals in 18 appearances since his summer switch to the Championship and has netted in each of his last four league matches including in yesterday’s 2-2 draw at Blackburn. (Transfermarkt).
And Peterborough’s Fry insists he could easily have sold his star man to Celtic in the summer instead, and that Glasgow was where he wanted to go.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, Fry said: “I said to Lenny and Nicky Hammond, when I met him, that Ivan wasn’t only a goalscorer, he was also the best defender we had. Honestly, at opposition corners and set-pieces the boy was brilliant with clearing headers. What do I think he’s worth for them now? They might get £30-50m for him if he carries on the way he is.
“Ivan wanted to go to Celtic because of the relationship he had with Gavin Strachan through working with him at Peterborough last season. And let’s be fair, Celtic are also one of the biggest clubs in the world with their support.
“At the time, they were prepared to give him £25,000 a week — more than what the others were prepared to. That said, he’s got a better deal at Brentford. Brentford really wanted him and did their homework. But Ivan would have WALKED to Celtic.”
Time to stand by Ajeti; Toney deal is in the past
It’s so easy to slam the board for this one and start roaring and crying about how we got it wrong. Sure, Toney is looking like one heck of a prospect and will likely be rifling them in up in the Premier League before long.
However, as Celtic fans, we need to stand by Ajeti at the moment. This isn’t the time to start talking about whether we got the wrong deal. It’s important to remember how good our new Swiss centre-forward was at the start of the season.
Ajeti also looked extremely strong in our Europa League draw against Lille too. He’s looked the part on plenty of occasions in a Celtic jersey, and must be entrusted to hit the goal trail once again sooner rather than later.
It’s also important not to disregard the fee involved. Frys says Brentford really wanted Toney, but they didn’t sign him because they wrote a love-letter to Peterborough expressing their heartfelt emotions about the striker. Money talks. They were happy to do a deal that could rise to £10m.
For Celtic to do the same would potentially have taken us above our record transfer figure. I don’t think it’s a stick that should be used to beat Celtic with, not when we were all delighted to sign Ajeti in the summer. We can’t keep having these discussions about whether we should’ve went for Toney everytime Albian goes on a bit of a goal drought.
Celtic will face St Johnstone at Parkhead this afternoon in the Premiership. Don’t be surprised if Ajeti nets. When he does, he’ll find his golden touch again.
In other news, a Scotsman journalist has made an intriguing claim about the Fraser Forster situation.
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