Man United told to snub Ivan Toney and sign 19-goals ‘best all-round centre-forward’ in Premier League

Man United told to snub Ivan Toney and sign 19-goals ‘best all-round centre-forward’ in Premier League

Ivan Toney is expected to leave Brentford this summer but he is no longer the Premier League’s hottest transfer property as Manchester United weigh up whether to bolster their attacking ranks

Manchester United should go all in for Ollie Watkins this summer and snub a move for Ivan Toney.

That is the view of former defender Paul Parker, who has claimed that the Aston Villa centre-forward is the best all round No9 in the Premier League.

While Rasmus Hojlund has shown flashes of promise in his debut campaign at Old Trafford, despite injury issues, Parker thinks Sir Jim Ratcliffe should target another goalscorer as he begins his overhaul of the club.

“If you are going to bring in another player to give competition to Hojlund, in my opinion, it’s not going to be Ivan Toney.

It’s going to be somebody of more note than Ivan Toney,” Parker said.

“You’d say the same about Ivan Toney working with somebody of note. He hasn’t had enough points on the board as a Premier League striker to be in the position of having an understudy, in my opinion.”

“Does Ivan Toney play as a centre-forward? Not really. He’s trying to play more like a Harry Kane in that sense.

“If you’re going to bring a centre-forward in and you’re going to keep him UK based, in my opinion you bring in Watkins. But he’s going to cost you £100 million and deservedly at that. Ivan Toney, £25-30 million, but Watkins has proven his worth every time.”

Watkins has 19 goals and 12 assists in the league, and Parker added: “The only thing that goes against him is that the English press don’t want to talk about him much. Maybe they’re worried about Harry Kane’s place.

“I don’t understand why the press doesn’t give him kudos at all. His work rate off the ball, look at how many goals he makes, he’s so unselfish and still scores goals. In every area, he’s the best all-round centre-forward in the league.”