Forest were in the race to sign this striker who is now worth £70m.
Nottingham Forest battled in the Premier League for much of last season, just avoiding relegation by four points despite Evangelos Marinakis’ £145 million spending spree on 21 new players.
After struggling to adjust to the demands of the top division, their chances are looking brighter this time around, with two wins from their first four games, including a 1-0 success against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
While Forest’s start to this season can be attributed towards their productive summer window, bringing in the likes of Divock Origi, Ibrahim Sangare, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga, the Reds have missed out on their fair share of talent over the years who have gone on to prosper elsewhere. The biggest of those in recent times is striker Ivan Toney.
Did Nottingham Forest come close to signing Toney? In the summer of 2020, the Reds were locked in a battle with arch-rivals Derby County and several other clubs for the star who was valued at just £5m at the time. Indeed, his stock had significantly risen on the back of a 26-goal season with Peterborough United in League One.
The Mirror, via the Nottingham Post, stated that Sabri Lamouchi, Forest’s manager at the time, were ready to launch a bid for the 24-year-old.
Despite showing interest in signing the “one hell of a player” as dubbed by Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony during his time at the Posh, a bid was never tabled by the Reds and while they would be made to regret that moment, Brentford would ultimately swoop in to land Toney. The Bees swatted away a whole host of clubs to capture Toney on deadline day for an initial fee of £5m rising to £10m with add-ons and since that day, the rest has been history.
What is Ivan Toney’s market value now? In May, Toney was banned from all football-related activity for eight months after breaching the Football Association betting rules and while this has temporarily derailed his immediate career, the 27-year-old looks destined to ply his trade at the very top of world football.
With his ban concluding in January, several big clubs have already registered an interest in the striker, including Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United, who have all been told that £70m-plus could seal a deal for him, according to Football Insider.
Branded as a “monster” by manager Thomas Frank, it’s clear to see why the big clubs are desperate to fight it out for his signature in the winter. Since their promotion to the Premier League, Toney has produced monstrous goal-scoring numbers in the top flight, returning an impressive 32 goals in 66 appearances.
While his prolific nature of goal-scoring is impressive, he’s more than just a sublime finisher, Toney’s all-round play has caught the eye. The England international is superb at using his upper body strength to hold up the ball, linking up play in excellent fashion and causing opposition problems with his running power in behind.
The £20k per-week sharpshooter, who has been described by his manager as having a “heart of a lion”, has utilised this attribute to become one of the league’s best strikers with the statistics backing up his prolific nature, ability to link play and aerial prowess. Forest may well have been promoted later down the line anyway, but the payday they’d have been in for would have been significant.
Despite his 2022/23 season drawing to a premature end, Toney still ranked in the top 11% against other Premier League strikers for his goals per 90, top 18% for passes into the final third and top 9% for aerials won, as per FBref, to summarise his all-round play aptly. Brentford look set to receive a bucket load for Toney in January if they sell and throwing it back to a time when Forest could have signed him in that 2020 summer transfer window, the Reds will be kicking themselves that a deal didn’t get done.
