When Ivan Toney played for Brentford against Arsenal on the opening day of the Premier League season in August, unlike many of his team mates, he was not making his first top flight appearance. Ivan's journey to Brentford has been told a few times with a spell at Newcastle United when he was a teenager including two Premier League appearances. But he has now talked about his footballing life with David Walsh, of the Sunday Times.

David and Ivan spoke last month, ahead of Brentford's match against Leicester City. They spoke about Ivan's first days as a professional at Northampton Town and his move to Newcastle. When Ivan left Newcastle permanently he went to Peterborough United and in the summer of 2020 there were many clubs interested in signing him.

“I looked at the strikers they’d had before me, how they’d done and I felt it was inevitable that I was going to slot in and score goals," Ivan told David, explaining why he made the move to Brentford last summer. "When I spoke to people at the club, I liked what they said and how they thought. They didn’t have the biggest budget but they chose wisely when it came to recruitment and they showed me more love than any other club. They’d been after me for a year and a half and knowing that, it was a no-brainer for me to come to the club. I saw it as a chance to repay their faith.”

The full piece includes comments from Ivan about his time at Newcastle and his spells out on loan when on their books. He also talks his leadership on and off the pitch. The piece is available in full on the Times website here, behind a paywall.