The date is 10 April 2022. West Ham United have just fallen to defeat away to Brentford, with the preceding fixture at the London Stadium six months earlier presenting the same ending.
The difference? In the second clash, Bees striker Ivan Toney put in a scintillating performance of attacking brilliance, with a goal and an assist apiece against the Champions League-chasing Hammers, reminding David Moyes of what could have been with his tremendous display.
Fast track to the closing days of 2022 and history has repeated, only this time Toney’s fierce strike and well-placed assist unravel West Ham in their own backyard by a 2-0 scoreline, compounding the east Londoners’ woes in the lower levels of the Premier League.
In just their second season back in the top flight, Brentford now perch in eighth place after 22 matches with just four defeats, and the polarity between their own fortunes and that of their cross-capital rivals could not be any more overt upon glancing at the table, with West Ham just two points and two places above the dreaded drop zone.
With Toney on fire, Moyes and the West Ham board could do little but cast a rueful eye onto the exalted 26-year-old, who has seemingly been of interest to the circumspect Irons for several years.
Did West Ham blunder on Ivan Toney?
Having scored 24 goals in 32 appearances for League One outfit Peterborough United in 2019/20, Championship promotion hopefuls Brentford swooped for the marksman for £5m, with West Ham having also enquired about him.
Toney then plundered 31 goals and ten assists from 45 league outings in 2020/21 as the focal point in the Bees’ monumental promotion to the Premier League, in which he has since scored 26 goals from 53 appearances.
Now valued at €36.4m (£32m) by Football Transfers, the “lion” – as dubbed by his manager Thomas Frank – is one of the most potent strikers in England, having scored 14 goals in 20 league matches this term as the west London outfit chase the prospect of European football.
Moyes and West Ham have retained their interest in the phenomenon, with The Mirror reporting them to be among the raft of interested suitors last summer.
With the Irons among the most impressive teams in England over the past couple of seasons, a talisman of such proficiency could’ve been invaluable, maybe even elevating the squad to new heights and clinching silverware or Champions League qualification.
Having recorded an average Sofascore rating of 7.36 this season, averaging three shots and 0.9 key passes per game, also creating nine big chances to illuminate the multi-faceted core to his game, there is no disputing that he would be the most devastating offensive presence in east London for some time.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and this adage can be duly applied to football. Considering that Moyes instigated the £35.5m transfer of Gianluca Scamacca from Sassuolo last summer, and with him having just three Premier League goals so far, coughing up a similar fee for Toney would likely have borne fruit much sooner.
The figure might have appeared steep in the summer of 2021, perhaps justifiably so for a player without a top-flight goal to his name at that point, but his remarkable goal record across the underlying two tiers of English football were evidence enough that he bore all the talismanic skills requisite for an ambitious outfit with European credentials.
He could have been a “machine” – as heralded by Phil Spencer – under Moyes, and with West Ham currently battling to preserve their Premier League status, the plight of the past does not warrant attention.
Still, just imagine Toney at the apex of the Irons’ attack, and it’s hard to think that they would be in their current plight.