Ivan Toney could have joined Tottenham Hotspur from Peterborough United in the summer before the global health situation scuppered any potential deal, Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony explained in his Hard Truth podcast.
In the end, it was Brentford who took a punt on a former Newcastle United youngster who was forced to drop out of the Premier League in order to rebuild his reputation in the lower tiers.
After hitting 49 goals across just two seasons at Peterborough, Toney has made the step up to Championship level look easy.
In 17 matches for Brentford, the rangy centre-forward has hit the target 14 times already.
With all due respect to Thomas Frank’s Bees, it seems only a matter of time before Toney is following in the footsteps of Andre Gray, Neal Maupay, Said Benrahma and co with a well-deserved return to the top flight.
MacAnthony has admitted before that David Pleat, a scout at Tottenham, had shown an interest in taking Toney to North London.
But it is only now that the Peterborough chairman has expanded on the situation, explaining why a deal didn’t happen in the end.
“David thought Ivan was a relatively cheap option to boost the Spurs squad what with all Harry Kane’s injury problems. (Spurs chairman Daniel) Levy might have been worried Spurs fans would laugh at him for signing a League One player but, in any case, the pandemic ruined any chance of the move going ahead,” MacAnthony explained.
Perhaps, with clubs all over England hit hard in the pocket by an unprecedented financial situation, Spurs were unwilling to invest a sizeable sum into a forward unproven at the top level, with Benfica loanee Carlos Vinicius perhaps a less risky option.
MacAnthony added that Pleat also recommended another Peterborough forward – the electrifying Ricky Jade-Jones – to the 2019 Champions League finalists.
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