‘I do wonder’: Journalist suggests Arsenal may have gone for 27-year-old over Havertz if he’d been available

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John Cross has suggested that Arsenal may well have gone and signed Ivan Toney instead of Kai Havertz if it weren’t for his long-term ban from football.

Speaking on the Sky Sports Back Pages Podcast, Cross was discussing the impending arrival of Havertz at the Emirates, and he claims that Toney perhaps could’ve been Arsenal’s Plan A.

According to Cross, Arsenal were always going to be in the market for another centre-forward this summer, and he reckons that Toney may well have been their number one pick before he was banned.

Toney over Havertz

Cross gave his verdict on this transfer.

“I’ll be honest, every summer a transfer comes along that surprises you and you didn’t see it coming, and I’ll be perfectly honest, I didn’t. I think Arsenal were definitely in the market for a new centre-forward and perhaps a bit more physicality in the middle. I do wonder if Ivan Toney hadn’t been banned whether or not they’d have gone for him, I fancy they might’ve done,” Cross said.

Surely not

It is interesting to ponder whether or not Arsenal would’ve gone for Ivan Toney if he were available, but we can’t help but disagree with Cross’ view here.

Simply put, Kai Havertz and Ivan Toney are not similar players at all.

Havertz is a versatile midfielder/attacker, while Toney is an old-school number nine.

Their styles of play are completely different, and while Havertz can do some of the things Toney can, there isn’t much overlap in terms of style here.

The German could be brought in to play a plethora of roles at Arsenal this season, but it’s hard to imagine that he’ll mainly play as a focal point number nine in the same way Toney does.