‘The real deal’ – Bent believes Arsenal can ‘lure’ striker away from PL rival

Lewis Oldham
Darren Bent believes Arsenal should sign Toney

Darren Bent has suggested that Arsenal will be able to “lure” Ivan Toney away from Brentford and that the striker has proven that he is “the real deal”.

Toney enjoyed his best season in senior football to date last term for Brentford in the Championship. He scored 33 times for them as they earned promotion to the Premier League.

Arsenal were linked with the striker during the summer transfer window. 


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The Englishman has netted two times in the top-flight this season as Brentford currently sit seventh in the table.

On Tuesday, Bent told talkSPORT that Toney would be a good fit for Arsenal:

“Could they lure him away from Brentford? Well, of course. Yes (he would be a good fit for Arsenal). It’s early days.

“But what he has shown so far at Brentford, he is the real deal, not in terms of his goal return, just the way he is bullying people and he never shys away a challenge.

“I think he is definitely destined for big things.”

Last month, Toney suggested that Arsenal will not win anything “anytime soon”:

“Arsenal fans are going to batter me for this, but you see Arsenal at the moment and they’re not the best.

“There was a difference [between the Championship and the Premier League], don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t crazy like: if you make a mistake, it’s going to end up in the back of the goal.

“I didn’t really see that. They were good at keeping the ball, but it didn’t really affect us.

“They weren’t as crazy as I thought [they would be]. I don’t know if it was [whether] they weren’t so good or we were just excited as it was our first game and it was Arsenal and Premier League [and] all these things coming into the picture.

“I just didn’t see them how they used to be. You used to look at Arsenal and think [they were] crazy and they were going to win this game, win this game.

“These days, I don’t see them winning nothing any time soon.”