Stan Collymore has urged Liverpool to consider offloading one player in order to try and land someone who’d be ‘perfect’ for Jurgen Klopp’s squad.
One of the standout stories from this weekend’s Premier League action will be the return of Ivan Toney after his eight-month suspension for breaching FA betting rules, with the forward set to captain Brentford against Nottingham Forest later today.
In his latest column for CaughtOffside, the former Anfield striker spoke very highly of the 27-year-old, who he believes would be an upgrade on Cody Gakpo to the extent that the Reds should even offer the Dutchman as part of a deal to try and land the Bees attacker.
Collymore wrote: “For me, if Liverpool decided to come calling, that would be perfect. I know they already have an embarrassment of riches in forward areas but if any of them were offloaded in the coming months, the Brentford star could be a great addition. I rate Toney so highly that I could see him in between Salah and Diaz.
“Liverpool will likely look at him and say ‘Not for us’ but if I was the Reds, I would genuinely be inclined to let Gakpo go, who I don’t think will go on to become a prolific Liverpool striker, and replace him with Toney. If they offered Brentford cash and Gakpo, I wonder if the Bees would go for that?
“Toney would add something significant to Liverpool as he can play as a traditional nine, he can drop off and he has proven with Mbeumo that he can forge partnerships. For me, I would be giving Brentford a call.”
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Toney has unquestionably been hugely prolific for Brentford throughout their time in the Premier League, with 32 goals in 68 top-flight appearances for the west London club, albeit with 11 of those coming from the penalty spot (Transfermarkt).
His return of 0.47 goals per game in the division compares very favourably with Gakpo, who’s struck 10 times in 39 outings in the English top flight (0.26 goals per game), as per Transfermarkt.
However, we’d stop short of suggesting that Liverpool should offload the Dutchman purely to make way for the Bees attacker. The 24-year-old is the Reds’ joint-second highest scorer in all competitions this term with nine goals, and he’s only been at Anfield for just over a year, so it’s way too soon to jettison him.
Also, even though Toney has been training with Brentford since September, it remains to be seen how quickly he can rediscover match sharpness following his eight months out of action.
We obviously wish the 27-year-old well upon his return to football, but we wouldn’t be getting rid of Gakpo just to make way for him.