Bianca Westwood: Why haven’t West Ham tried to sign Ivan Toney?
Bianca Westwood has expressed her surprise that West Ham never made an official approach to sign Brentford centre-forward Ivan Toney.
The two clubs will face off in the Premier League for the first time this weekend as the Bees make the trip to the London Stadium.
Ahead of the clash in east London, David Moyes has admitted that the Irons scouted Toney, 25, at his previous club Peterborough United, but opted against firming up their interest [football.london].
Sky Sports reporter Westwood, who is a West Ham fan, has reacted to Moyes’ admission on her personal Twitter profile.
“Can’t believe we didn’t try to sign him then,” she wrote.
From strength to strength
After a fairly nomadic start to his career that saw him jump from club to club, Toney started to carve out a reputation as a prolific goalscorer at League One level for Peterborough, scoring 40 goals in 80 third-tier appearances.
There were rumours of Premier League clubs sniffing around, and Moyes has confirmed West Ham were one of those that were keeping a close eye on his performances.
But it seems that those clubs were never truly convinced that he could make the leap from League One to the Premier League, and Brentford were able to snap him up last year.
That proved to be a masterstroke as he struck 33 goals and supplied 10 assists in 48 Championship outings, including the play-offs, to help inspire the Bees to a historic promotion.
The Northampton-born forward has already made an impression in the Premier League, with four direct goal contributions in six appearances.
It’s hard to say West Ham are ruing their inability to sign him given Michail Antonio’s feats during the current campaign, but could Toney have stepped up in his absence last season and helped fire the Irons to the Champions League?
He certainly would have helped, but as it is, he will now fetch a hefty transfer fee for any club that wants to sign him now.
In other West Ham news, Mark Lawrenson has predicted their scoreline against Brentford on Saturday.
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