Thomas Frank has backed Ivan Toney after leaked speculation over the Football Association’s (FA) intended ban for his alleged breaches of betting rules, as well as suggestions he had trained badly while on England duty.
The Brentford striker has been charged with 262 alleged violations by English football’s governing body, which took place over a four-year period.
There has been no official FA update on the matter but reports, initially by The Daily Mail on Tuesday, claimed Toney had pleaded guilty to the majority of charges and could face a six-month ban.
Those reports suggested the 26-year-old also denied some of the violations, though Toney was left bewildered by reported leaks within the FA, posting on Instagram that he was “shocked and disappointed” by them.
Toney earned a first England call-up in September but was left out of Gareth Southgate’s squad for the World Cup.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of Brentford’s west London derby with Fulham, Bees head coach Frank said: “The most important [thing] is Ivan. He is amazing in many aspects, the way he copes with pressure, or distraction, and this is of course a bigger one.
“This has been ongoing since November, and yet he just carried on scoring goals, performing for the team, driving the team. It is so remarkable.
“We are 11 games unbeaten [in the Premier League], so I guess that is a decent response.
“It is like life, sometimes things get thrown at you and you need to deal with it.
“I would say that we share the disappointment of Ivan in terms of the leaks, that is for a confidential case. It surprised us massively.
“He has trained well and to me he is clearly number two in England as a striker. He has proven that with the goals and the performances.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Brentford – Ivan Toney
Since their promotion to the Premier League in 2021, Toney has scored 31 per cent of Brentford’s goals (26/85), the highest ratio of any player for a team to have played across both campaigns.
Fulham – Manor Solomon
Manor Solomon has scored in each of his last three Premier League games, all as a substitute. Only one player – Jamie Vardy from November 2018 to October 2020 – has ever scored in four consecutive substitute appearances in the Premier League, while no player has ever done so in an uninterrupted run of games for a club in the competition.
MATCH PREDICTION – BRENTFORD WIN
Brentford are unbeaten in their last 11 Premier League games (W5 D6), the longest current run in the competition. However, they have won just one of their last nine league London derbies (D6 L2).
Fulham won the reverse fixture against Brentford 3-2 in August – they have only completed a Premier League double over three London sides – Charlton in 2002-03, Tottenham in 2003-04 and QPR in 2011-12.
However, Brentford have won four of their last five home league games against Fulham (L1), winning 1-0 the last time they hosted the Cottagers in league competition in December 2019 in the Championship.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Brentford 46.2 per cent
Fulham25.4 per cent
Draw28.4 per cent
