“It’s obvious I want to play for a top club” | Ivan Toney refuses to rule out transfer

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Ivan Toney speaks to Sky Sports News on the day his eight month ban from football for betting comes to an end.

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All eyes have obviously been on Saturday and you come back but actually in some respects today’s the day isn’t it today’s the day from Midnight the band was finished you’ve served your time you can now resume your career hopefully pick up where you left off I mean that

Must feel like an enormous weight lifted yeah I feel like a free man I feel like a free man but yeah a massive weight has been lifted off off off my shoulders and yeah I just can’t wait to get back enjoying and playing football again this Saturday so it’ll be good

It’ll be it’s a big day today but I think even bigger day is Saturday has it overshadowed everything when we were just talking off camera about your family the little moments I don’t know birthdays Christmas just gone holidays is it always there yeah it’s always going to be there I think obviously the

Weekends are like my whole family knows they travel down to watch me playb football and missing that for 8 months is kind is painful and painful for me knowing I’ve kind of ruined their weekend kind of thing but yeah I just can’t wait to hopefully repay them on

The next games and pick up where where I left off and get the goals back under my belt and give them something to be smiling and happy about yeah I mean I heard you talk in a a few other interviews about the emotions attached with this so I mean rightly or wrongly

Has guilt been one of them you know when you’re watching your teammates go out there without you you’re just talking about your family there um yeah yeah to a certain extent but I feel like things happen in life um you take on a chin and

You move forward with it and I feel like yes I should have been playing for helping the team um perform well but that’s Obviously good players in the team and they also have a role to do and and step in when when needed but yeah obviously

Is it’s kind of like I do feel kind of bad but is what it is I can’t dwell on it too much otherwise I can’t change it so what’s done is done and yeah like I said with my family is kind of ruined their weekends but hopefully I can put

On the show so is it almost like the whole thing’s been paused and now you press play again yeah yeah pretty much pretty much I feel like we lost connection we lost connection the Wi-Fi went but now we’re back and we fre loaded when you look forward

To Saturday I was just thinking like in terms of the little things of match day and being a footballer what have you missed most I know little bits like the guy in the tanoy reading your name sitting on the coach pulling your socks on in the Chang room what little bits

Have you really missed I think just little bits like walking into the stadium before the game just Bing with everyone uh even the warm-up the the biggest thing in football I hate is warm-ups but I feel like I’ve missed that and I can’t can’t wait to do that

Obviously I know you have to do it but yeah but um yeah little things like that little silly things and I think the first moment walking out the tunnel just before the game everyone’s screaming and the F the whistle goes to kick off I think that’s when the excitement will be

There have you visualized that again and again I yeah I visualized a lot that’s a lot of visualizing I can’t wait and I see from the panenka you took in the Behind Closed Doors game the other day you’ve not lost any of your composure oh

No I don’t think I would I would lose that no matter what situation it’s still there it’s just in my blood and uh that’s something I like to express what Ivan Tony are we going to see is it unrealistic to expect look I was um

Again I was sort of thinking as I Was preparing for this I was at your last game at Liverpool when you were superb can we can we possibly see that Ian Tony straight away or will it take time um I believe yeah be straight away I’d like

To think it is straight away because I feel like I’ve been training well I’ve been playing well in the behind closed doors games and uh I don’t see why I can’t pick up where I left off and I I mean I’ve got nothing to prove to nobody

But to myself I just want to be starting sharp starting right and uh be scoring goals again sooner rather than later so how long did it take for you to start thinking okay you know almost getting over the the initial shock if that’s the right word and think right

The band’s there how do I turn this adversity into something you know use the negative if you like I think I just when I was working hard away from the pitch um yeah it was kind of like the feel sorry for your moment for for so

Long but then after that you snap out of it and think right I can even go this way I can go this way and I I hope to think I’ve chose the right way I’m working hard and working towards getting back on a pitch and I feel like when I

Was back training with a with a team team that was a that was a moment where I picked up and started going to the right the right direction so if people don’t know the first four months no football contact no training at all I mean sounds almost obvious I know I say

It but was that the hardest part yeah 100% obviously not being away being away from the from the ground not being able to be to even see the players it was painful and you kind of lost in your own world thinking like well what am I going

To train how am I going to do certain things and things like that but a good job I having good people around me and help on helping me get places where I can train and do certain exercises and things like this and when I got back to

Football it was perfect it was great everyone around the club was happy to see me I was happy to be back and all the staff took care of me and it was was all good so who are the good people who got you through it um literally everybody obviously all the fans play

Their part all the messages um from from the gaffa down to everybody the the the the chefs that was happy to see me around Al I give them a bit of grief on their food but not the best no is good but I just like to B over them but yeah

Now everybody played their part everybody just asking me how I am and these kind of things and yeah obviously it means it means the world to see that people actually cared on the whole situation and it it was great to feel kind of loved that that kind of moment

But yeah I think everyone played a part and that shows how brenford are as a as a club I mean I wouldn’t want to claim to know Thomas Frank too well but obviously see him in quite a lot of interview situations I mean he seems like a wonderful man manager and if

You’re going to have a situation like you’ve had the sort of manager you would want to help you through has he been a big support yeah massive I mean he’s very understanding and he’s not just a manager he’s also your friend like we we talk all the time we always text and

Even little things what films to watch and these kind of things so yeah he he’s he’s a genuine genuinely nice person and good a good manager to be playing under and given all that support you’ve had from everyone all around the clubs you mentioned you know fans chef Thomas

Frank look I’m just going to ask this in quite a direct way does that mean that maybe one day there’ll be a right time to move on from brenford but this January is not that right time well I don’t know you can never predict when when’s the right time to move elsewhere

But I mean it’s it’s obvious that I’d like to play for a top club everybody wants to play for the top clubs fighting for titles and these kind of things so whether it’s this January the right time was to be a club would to come in and

Pay the right money who knows but my main focus is doing what I do on the pitch and let the background work take care of itself I mean I have to say I have listened to you speak in another interview quite recently where I mean to

Make no bones about it you are very very amb ambitious footballer you were talking about wanting to be England’s number nine and you said it in a really respectful way to Harry Kane you know how good he is but that is like The Benchmark you set for yourself of course

To be the best you have to play with the best and compete against the best we all know Harry Kane’s one of the best strikers in the world and he’s he’s been doing it for some years now so if I want to be the the England’s number one then

I have to compete against him and I mean it’s not it’s not a bad Striker to be taking tips off and be training with so yeah I just got to keep keep scoring goals keep playing well and uh who knows what can happen and if I just fall short of that then hopefully

I’ll become the second best in the world yeah I mean it all sounds to say but are you anywhere in your mind you thinking this could still be a decent season there’s time score goals keep brenford up there’s a Euros coming up in the summer you know so with all this ban

Either side of it you have a 20 goal season and and hopefully a season now that ends well as as well yeah I mean I I have a Target on how many goals I want to get and uh if if I hit that or get close to that then I feel like it’s

Still a good season for myself and uh like you said the main focus is keep brenford up which I’m sure we’ll have no troubles in doing because we have more than enough in the squad to to do that and everybody doesn’t we are kind of in a relegation battle but everybody knows

We capable of getting back to where we should be which is climbing the table and up in in in the top half but yeah we just got to focus on what we we can do not focus too much on what if we got relegated what if we go that like the

More you think of negative things the more it’s likely to happen so we it’s still positive thinking around the ground everyone’s still in happy moods if anyone’s in the mood then I’ll get them out of it shot it’s something I really should have asked before now because within all this the band you

You’ve sort of served you were diagnosed with an addiction a gambling addiction so how are you yeah I’m fine I’m fine I mean like things kep happen in life is what it is and you just focus on what what what’s what can be and what’s what’s better and it’s always whatever

Situation in it could always be worse you got to think of the positives and move forward with life where do you stand on what happened to you do you feel like someone that some something has happened to or do you think no that was me that was my mistake it’s time to

Move on now but you know I’m responsible yeah I’m responsible of course if there’s something you shouldn’t be doing you’re going to get punished for it I’ve Had My Punishment and it’s done I mean if if you’re go against the rules do something you shouldn’t be doing there’s

Always going to be a punishment and that’s a punishment whether I think it’s harsh or not it’s not really my place to be saying my opinion doesn’t really matter cuz I’ve had my punishment and I’m not in charge of giving the punishments up so the more I dwell on

These kind of things and think was it harsh was it not harsh should I have got it like it doesn’t matter it’s not going to change the situation I remember I mean almost my only experience of it would be talking to Paul Merc he’s been very open about his addictions and he he

Talked about gambling addiction being the hardest thing he’s ever had to deal with so are you I mean it’s quite a personal thing to ask but can you tell us tell people at home a little bit about like when you’re in the grip of the addiction like how it affects you

Um probably not as much as others uh but I I think like sometimes you just don’t realize what you’re doing at the moment a moment in time then you just realize you end up doing something you shouldn’t be doing is it almost only when you speak to your interview twice by Dr

Hopley before the commission uh is only once you start speaking to like an expert you sort of you kind of realized that something was up at the time I don’t know maybe you don’t realize no yeah pretty much obviously he was he said certain things I mentioned certain

Things it’s kind of like do you do these kind of things do them kind of things you start thinking deep down yeah wait I actually did do that I did do that then it’s kind of like more leading towards like the gambling side but yeah I mean

Like I’ve been sorting it out it’s sorted out now um I’ve been speaking spoke to people about and it’s and it’s sorted now so hopefully I’m sure I will focus on doing the right thing forward and uh hopefully no more Sil punishments like this so when you say sorted now I guess an

Addiction’s kind of always with you but at the moment no B you’ve been able to yeah it’s no it’s not urge to do none of that rubbish now so it’s it’s all good and I mean I think I me I I would be the same in terms

Of I I wouldn’t as much as people tell me talking is the best thing to do and what you should do and open up I you know I don’t find that that easy is that something that you’ve had to adjust and get used to to to talk to people to be

Open um yeah obviously the hardest thing I think as men we we find it hard to open up about certain things um but me personally yeah I I don’t I tend to like keep everything inside I don’t like sharing nothing is that the right approach have you changed

Through I mean I’ve changed a bit because i’ obviously shared certain certain bits of information in front of a TV Camera now yeah no but no yeah I’ve changed a bit but not not not loads obviously it’s still hard for me to open up and share certain things and show

Certain emotion but I think that’s just how I am as a character and just that’s me as a person whether it’ll change for down the line I’m not too sure but I think we we all as humans need to open up a lot more about on certain situations listen thanks for looking

Back with us but just just lastly is the feeling now just excitement for what’s ahead pure excitement I think I’ll probably be knacked after 20 30 minutes but I’m sure the excitement I want to see getting subbed halfway through the first half I think I refuse to come up

So no I think um yeah the excitements will be there and I think that’ll probably get me through the 90 minutes if I was to play 90 minutes who knows but yeah it’s just pure excitement and I can’t wait to get started again I’d be surprised if you didn’t play 90 minutes

Uh don’t be surprised has it made you realize what you’ve got is that an upside of all this in terms of your F you know it must have made you realize you know the people are really close to you the people who are looking out for you you learn a lot about people

In these situations but also your football you know not having it makes you realize what having it is like yeah obviously football is it’s like a it’s um it’s a luxury really like like I’ve said before in uh previous interviews like football is it’s a luxury and it’s

Like we’re privileged us as football is a privilege to be playing doing the sport we love whereas people in the world can’t play football can’t uh can’t have certain luxuries like that and for me to be if I was to be dwelling on being upset that I can’t be

Playing football these kind of things it would be a bit Rich myself to be thinking like that so I think looking back I I did take it it did it did take its toll on me but then after I looked I looked at the bigger picture and wait

It’s just football I can’t play so let me just take care of the family do look at other things and enjoy life as a whole rather than just focus on football side well look thanks for coming in thanks for being open and honest and welcome back thank you very much good to be Back [Applause]