“That’s a good question,” admitted Thomas Frank, and it was far from the only one the Brentford manager faced as he previewed his team’s home game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening. Or, to put it another way, and how everyone is doing: Ivan Toney’s comeback after an eight-month ban for gambling violations. Is the Brentford striker fueled by a sense of injustice?
Surprisingly, it didn’t get a good answer, because Frank is usually the man for a good answer; always willing to be involved, to think deeply, to respond with extra layers. When asked at one point about Toney’s potential to gain support from opposition fans, he brought up David Beckham after the 1998 World Cup. “I hope that won’t happen, but I know there will be some there will be banter and probably more than just banter and stoking,” Frank said.
Related: ‘A lonely existence’: Ivan Toney walks a well-worn path when he returns from a ban
On the unfairness front, Frank agreed it could give Toney an “edge” and it feels like a good starting point for an examination of the emotions that have been brewing within the player since November 2022 – perhaps even before that. It’s mainly because of how hard Toney himself worked on it.
The 27-year-old has given a number of interviews since last May, when his ban was announced after pleading guilty to 232 breaches of the Football Association’s gambling rules over a period of almost four years from February 2017.
In more than one of them, Toney spoke of his devastation at how “they” – meaning the FA – “decided to make it all public” in November 2022, just before Gareth Southgate named his England squad for the World Cup in Qatar. The story about Toney being investigated for gambling violations was actually debunked by a newspaper; it was barely an FA press release and at that point he had not yet been charged.
Toney felt that the revelation made it impossible for Southgate to pick him and that if the England manager did not do so, missing the World Cup would be a bigger punishment than his eventual ban. But why did ‘they’ wait until May to suspend him? “It’s like a double hit,” Toney told The Diary of a CEO podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett. “I felt like someone was out to stop me from playing for England.”
Toney also told Bartlett that authorities had made an example of him because of his status; that players further down the leagues who had broken gambling rules had been punished less severely.
It deals with another interesting theme: Toney’s apparent unwillingness to apologize for what he did. Does he have any regrets, Frank was asked. “I think he… it’s not like he thinks it’s great when you make a mistake,” Frank replied. “Let’s just say that during a football match he always holds his hand up when he should have done something better. Sorry is a big word. If it could be done differently, I think he would have, but he moves on.”
This was the aspect Frank wanted to highlight; Toney’s preternatural ability to live in the moment on the field and immediately park whatever has just happened. From the outside, it’s easy to portray Toney as some sort of avenger, ready to take out his frustration on the Forest defence. The way Frank tells it, he’s just ready to take out the Forest Defenses because that’s how he’s wired.
“The way he plays football is the way he lives his life,” Frank said. “If there is anything good, he is still improving. Something bad or whatever, injustice… leave it in the past, move on. He doesn’t play with anger. He plays on smiles, energy and positive thinking.
“Ivan is so good at staying focused – next action, next shot, next urgent situation, next set, connection. So leave out the bad action or the good action and just build on the next one. That is top ability and I think you see that in the top players.”
Frank’s media conference was certainly better attended than usual and Brentford press officer Chris Wickham was all smiles during his welcome speech. “Just to let you know we won’t be answering questions about Ivan Toney,” he said. Towards the end Frank asked how many there had been. “Twenty-six? Yes?” he said. “Let’s reach thirty! Come on, we can do that!”
Toney’s comeback was described as the biggest in the Premier League since Eric Cantona’s kung fu kick and Frank wanted to bring up another: Christian Eriksen’s for his Brentford team in February 2022. It was Eriksen’s first appearance since his cardiac arrest . during the opening match of the European Championship in Denmark in June 2021.
“It’s different, but I compare it a bit to Christian – he wasn’t ‘injured’ either if that makes sense,” Frank said. “Of course it was something strange that happened to him, but he started hard and I expect the same from Ivan.”
Where Frank did see a parallel between Toney and Cantona was their supreme self-confidence. “There is a story about our defender Charlie Goode, a good friend of Ivan,” said Frank. “When Ivan came to the club [from Peterborough in 2020] and didn’t score in the first four games, Charlie said to him, “Are you okay?” Ivan said: ‘Yes, I will break the scoring record in the championship, I will score more than 30 goals.’ What he did. He has that confidence. He believes he can score with every play.”
So many uncomfortable elements remain in the Toney saga. When he was first interviewed by the FA in May 2022, he said he had not bet on matches. Only later would he admit this, even though there was a caveat in his interview with Bartlett. “There were bets in the 232 that I didn’t remember making, but I was willing to take on the responsibility of seeing the process through to the end,” Toney said.
Toney told Bartlett that he “wasn’t lying…I just couldn’t remember what they asked for – until they brought me certain things.” Then there was the line: “If I just deny it, it’s all fine – they wouldn’t find anything.”
Toney’s admission to Sky this week that he did not know whether the move he wants to a top club could come this month was poorly judged, although it was probably more in line with his insatiable desire. He has had to battle to protect his mental health, especially during the first four months of his suspension when he was not allowed to train with Brentford. There has also been the reality of his gambling addiction.
Toney wants to move on. “He’s like an eight-year-old boy who just has the pure joy of playing football,” said Frank, as he confirmed Toney would start against Forest and wear the captain’s armband in the absence of the injured Christian Nørgaard.
Even without Toney, the match would have been high-profile: injury-hit Brentford desperate to end a five-match losing streak against a Forest team one place above them in 15th and reeling from the announcement that they might receive a points deduction for violating the financial rules. . With Toney it’s a blockbuster.
“It’s perfect timing for Ivan, it’s classic Ivan,” said Frank. “It could have been away, a 12.30 kick-off, but now it’s at home, under the floodlights at 5.30pm and a bit about the match, I would say. He’ll just thrive in that environment.