Brentford boss Thomas Frank has blasted Gareth Southgate for leaving out Ivan Tony from his final 26-man list for the 2022 World Cup squad.
Gareth Southgate announced his World Cup with some surprise omissions, including the likes of Roma’s Tammy Abraham and Brentford’s Ivan Toney.
Brentford’s manager has ironically called out the England manager for omitting Ivan Toney from the World Cup squad.
Addressing the omission, he commended Gareth Southgate for a great job done with the Three Lions squad after taking over as manager.
Gareth Southgate took the Three Lions to the Semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and later led the team to the finals of the Euros 2020, where he lost to Italy through penalties.
After a due recognition of Gareth Southgate’s strides as England manager, he, however, admitted that he must have miss it by leaving out Ivan Toney from the England World Cup squad.
He said all coaches, including himself, sometimes fail to make the right decisions and fall to their biases and sentiments.
In the case of Ivan Toney, Thomas Frank admitted that Gareth Southgate did not make the right decision and was biased in his selection of the frontline attackers in the squad.
“I said (to Toney) these coaches, they don’t always take the best decisions, including myself. All people in the world are biased. So I am biased my way, Gareth is biased his way”, Thomas Frank said.
Premier League players – Harry Kane of Tottenham, Marcus Rashford of Manchester United, Jack Grealish of Manchester City, Phil Foden of Manchester City, Raheem Sterling of Chelsea, and Callum Wilson of Newcastle are Gareth Southgate’s choices for the team’s attacking lineup in Qatar.
However, Thomas Frank has insisted that apart from Harry Kane on that lineup, no other player can be said to be better than Ivan Toney based on their recent form.
“So I think he’s done fantastic (and) I think we should just trust the process”, the coach said. “You can’t find a better striker in form in the country after Harry Kane. It’s impossible.”
Ivan Toney has scored eight goals in 13 games for Brentford this season and was called up for the Three Lions’ UEFA Nations League squad in their last round of group matches.
It was the first time he was called up and this boosted his hopes of making it to the final 26-man World Cup squad.
Gareth Southgate reacts to the decision to omit Ivan Toney from the squad
Gareth Southgate has insisted he did not snub Ivan Toney because the striker is in the middle of an FA gambling probe.
Brentford forward Toney has admitted he is assisting the Football Association amid allegations he broke strict rules on placing bets earlier in his career.
Toney was called up in September but did not get a cap and was privately fearing the FA investigation could count against him and Newcastle’s Callum Wilson got the nod ahead of him.
But England boss Southgate insisted he was not told not to pick him and said: “I’ve not had that conversation because he wasn’t in our squad.”
Gareth Southgate said the essence of the September call was to get Ivan Toney acquainted with the squad, not to include him in the World Cup squad.
Southgate said he settled for Callum Wilson because he has been with the squad for a long time and knows the squad better than Ivan Toney.
England will kick off their World Cup campaign against Iran on November 21, with the Three Lions tipped to go far in the competition.
