Newcastle United smashed their club-record switch price by signing Sweden worldwide Alexander Isak from Actual Sociedad in the summertime.
Dan Ashworth determined to swoop for the La Liga centre-forward and splashed out a reported price of £59m to convey him to St. James’ Park to bolster Eddie Howe’s squad.
The previous Borussia Dortmund attacker has loved a strong begin to life in England with two objectives in his first three Premier League appearances, together with his strike towards Bournemouth coming from the penalty spot.
Nevertheless, the Magpies might not have wanted to splash the money on Isak if issues had gone in another way for Ivan Toney on Tyneside, following his transfer to the membership from Northampton in 2015.
He joined the Toon Military as a 19-year-old throughout Steve McClaren’s tenure and penned a long-term contract forward of the 2015/16 marketing campaign.
The teen made 4 senior appearances all through the season, together with two within the Premier League, however did not get off the mark in entrance of purpose, though he did produce 5 objectives and three assists in 9 outings for the U21s.
Newcastle then despatched him out on mortgage in 4 completely different home windows earlier than promoting him to Peterborough, who had been in League One on the time, in the summertime of 2018.
In his two seasons in East Anglia, Toney plundered an attention grabbing 40 objectives and 13 assists in 76 third-tier appearances and his kind earned him a transfer to Championship facet Brentford.
Thomas Frank bought him firing within the second tier as he scored an outstanding 33 objectives and assisted ten in 48 matches, together with the play-offs, to assist the Bees safe promotion to the Premier League.
Toney, who Journalist Rob Blanchette just lately described as “underrated“, has since confirmed that he has the standard to attain objectives on the prime degree of English soccer as he has discovered the again of the web 17 occasions in 40 league matches for Brentford, while additionally offering seven assists.
He can be a dream for Howe at Newcastle in 2022 as he’s a deadly goalscorer, a creator for his teammate, and works laborious defensively for his workforce.
The Magpies’ head coach needs his workforce to press groups excessive up the pitch and the England worldwide would swimsuit that type as he ranks within the 92nd percentile amongst gamers in his place during the last three hundred and sixty five days in Europe’s prime 5 leagues for interceptions per 90 with 0.75.
This implies that he’s adept at slicing out opposition passes and this might enable him to thrive in a high-pressing workforce as he may create counter-attacking alternatives by successful the ball within the closing third, while his file by way of objectives and assists signifies that he has the standard to benefit from these possibilities.
Due to this fact, the striker, who Frank claimed has the “mindset of a lion“, can be a dream striker for Howe at St. James’ Park and it’s a disgrace that issues didn’t work out for him on Tyneside.