Barry Fry still remembers the only time he fell out with Ivan Toney. It was deadline day in the January transfer window and Barnsley wanted to buy the Peterborough striker.
Toney, flanked by his father and his agent, trooped into the office and begged Fry, Peterborough’s director of football, to let him leave. Fry refused.
‘I said to his agent he’s miles better than Barnsley,’ Fry says. ‘No disrespect to Barnsley but if that’s the only club you can find for him, if I was Ivan, I’d sack you! Ivan’s better than that.’
Ivan Toney received an offer to sign for Barnsley when he was playing for Peterborough
But Posh director of football Barry Fry blocked the move, believing that Toney could do better
Fry reminded Toney of that conversation when he phoned the Brentford frontman on Thursday to congratulate him on his England call-up. ‘I said I bet you’re glad I never let you go to Barnsley!’ Fry recalls.
‘I bump into his dad now and again and I remind him that he wanted to beat me up. I wasn’t his cup of tea then but it’s all smiles now. Everything turned out all right.’
The heart of this little story, Fry tells The Mail on Sunday, is what happened next. The decision frustrated Toney. Barnsley were in the Championship, Peterborough in League One. Barnsley could offer more money. When he joined Peterborough, Fry promised he would not stand in his way if the right opportunity came to move up. Toney thought it was the right opportunity. Fry did not.
Fry eventually sold Toney to Brentford for £5m and the striker got the Bees promoted
Yet, despite it all, Toney’s dedication never wavered. ‘He was obviously disappointed but as soon as the window closed, he ran through brick walls for us,’ says Fry.
Seven months later, having finished the season as the top scorer in League One with 24 goals, Toney joined Brentford for £5million. He got them promoted. Now, he is shining in the Premier League and on the verge of becoming an England international.
Fry’s only real surprise is that Manchester United did not ‘break the bank’ to sign him in the summer.
‘No one deserves an England call-up more than he does,’ Fry says. ‘He has worked so hard at his game. What I loved about Ivan is he had this great attitude where he said, “I want to listen, I want to learn, I want to improve, I want to get better and better and better”.
‘He will not change. He’s got his feet on the floor. He’s not a Big-Time Charlie who got his move, became a millionaire and thinks he…