Jon Toral returns to Arsenal this summer after a loan spell at Birmingham City that has been an unequivocal success.
The midfielder had already caught the eye with his performances, but at the club’s end of season bash he picked up three awards. The 21 year old was named Supporter’s Player of the Season – garnering 40% more votes than anyone else.
He won goal of the season for a brilliant volley against Ipswich, and won the acclaim of his peers by being named Players Player of the Year.
Speaking last week, Toral spoke about his desire to have a conversation with Arsenal about what the future holds for him.
“I’ll go back to Arsenal and then we’ll decide from there. I’ll play pre-season there and see what the future holds for me.
“I think I have progressed a lot this season with more minutes on the pitch. That’s what you’re looking for when you go out on loan – to get some experience of football at a high level.”
Whether he’s done enough for Arsene Wenger to promote him to the first team squad next season remains to be seen, but with a number of midfield departures (and rumoured arrivals), it’s an area of the team that will get something of a shake up.
nice goal – and a masculine beard.
Sometimes our first team could do with such route one goal!
Maybe the beard and the player could fill what we missed out when we failed to sign Alonso.
He definitely deserves a chance.
We knew he’d been a success at Birmingham but to hear he’s won three big awards is fantastic and provides even more reason to let him have a run out next season.
Well done Jon!
I really hopes he gets a chance next season. Outstanding technical ability and like Jack before him made his loan count. He’s a great prospect and his best mate Hector made it as well!
I really hope he gets a chance at arsenal, but his chance would most likely come in the cup competitions
Good back-up for Ozil
That volley!
Statistically speaking, shots from outside the box have a much lower conversion rate than those inside the box. Therefore, he should have controlled the ball and looked to create a better opportunity to score.
Oh, wait, maybe it is worth shooting from outside the box…
I reckon AW will hold that against him when discussing his next step. “You did well Jon but that shot was a bit risky.”
Seems like quite an exciting prospect, especially for a loaned player to win all three of the awards. Although it would be interesting to see if Wenger can get him into a side littered with CMs..
He is an AM, he scores and assists. So a Tomas rather than a Mikel or Matthieu.
He can operate as an AM, box to box, or DM and learnt his trade at La Masia as a Deep Lying Playmaker.
Let’s not pigeon whole the guy.
Maybe he’ll do a Hector and move back to fullback, let’s see, though he won the awards above playing as an AM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Toral
Hope he gets the chance, like Bellerin before him, and Iwobi, you have a hunger from coming up through the ranks that often those who are signed do not. With the expected departures of Rosicky, Flamini, and Arteta, you’d hope even with signings, there’d be room for him.
Hopefully he’s either loaned to a PL team or replaces Flam, Arteta or Rosicky in the squad and given some game time next season
If we throw diaby in there those are four midfielders that need replacing, toral and wellington will get a chance
Diaby left 10 months ago…
Yeah, like, totally. Diaby has hardly played a minute all season! (For Marseille..)
I’d like to see him get a chance.
I think he will get his chance next season, knowing and following arsenal and Arsene Wenger for the past decade I would hope that there would be more midfielders bought but I really doubt there will be. The only positions I see us strengthening is up front and at the back if big per decides to leave
If we give him a chance then we only have to sign one midfielder in the summer. Toral could be perfect replacement for either cazorla or ramsey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoDhSglMsfY is worth a look, attacking midfielder. Very good touch and passing (like Bellerin), tall, can head the ball, scores and assists (8 and 4 in 36 Championship matches). Difficult to see any weaknesses given the video shows his best bits.
Worth him coming back to us and showing what he can do.
Reminds me of Szcz who was at Brentford when young and was voted Brentford’s best goalie ever. Both of them impressed at a lower level.
And good that he is an AM but also big and strong, which is a change from Tomas, Ozil, Santi, Walcott etc.
What the hell is he doing shooting from there? Not to worry, Arsene will soon manage to coach that nonsense out of him. He’ll be making unnecessary dribbles into nowhere along with plenty of sideways passes that have become a recent hallmark of this Arsenal team.
Would fans rather we bring Xhaka or Toral into our midfield? Seen as many are unhappy with us not winning the league.
You tell us.
How much of Xhaka have you seen? And I don’t mean wiki and YouTube videos?
Since we can not win anyway under wenger let’s go for toral and save the dollar ?
Xhaka and Toral not the same type of player; one more of a deep lying mid, the other more attacking. Toral would be deputized to Ramsey or Ozil even… but then we have lots of players like that i.e. Wilshere, Iwobi, Zelalem
But let’s be honest – Wenger never ever buys for NEED. He buys based on bargains available. If he thinks 34m for Xhaka is a great deal he’ll pull the trigger regardless of whether we need another midfielder or not.
He would be discouraged from shooting from there at Arsenal.
At this stage in his career, if he isn’t ready to come back and be a first team starter, i’d rather him go out on loan to somewhere where he can play every week. Gametime is vital to a players development at that age.
The kid has got massive beards.
Big big fan of Toral. I believe he would’ve been in the squad a while back if not for injuries. He’s been fantastic at Birmingham, which superseded an already good loan at Brentford. I imagine Wenger will want to farm him off to a PL club on loan, but with the amount of TV money floating about, lower PL clubs simply don’t have the need or desire to play loanees. IMO, Toral has all the qualities to replace Arteta as our DLP. I worry Wenger will simply put him as a creative midfielder, and will Naturally put him in his… Read more »
I share your pessimism. Wenger has never been known to take a considered look at his squad and buy what it lacks for the forthcoming season – which currently are strikers/wingers to replace the probably departing Sanchez, Walcott, Joel Campbell, plus possibly Giroud, and to provide cover for the injured Ox and Welbeck up to Christmas. Wenger buys the players he likes, which are vaguely central midfielders of the Ramsey, Cazorla, Wilshere variety of which every single season we have more than we can possibly use. Even with Flam, Arteta and Rosicky leaving on frees, none of whom have been… Read more »
Blogs, why am I always now in moderation?
I’ve never done anything to deserve it; broken the rules or trolled.
I don’t know 🙁
Is this a common problem nowadays?
It seems to happen to me quite frequently, but doesn’t seem to follow any pattern – sometimes posts go through fine, sometimes they take ages to go through and sometimes they take a few minutes.
I’ve been in moderation for years and have never broken the rules. Maybe the ‘moderator’ has a negativity detector – though, if so, it’s strange it hasn’t outlawed Fatgooner. Perhaps one-line negativity of the ‘Wenger out’, ‘Giroud is crap’ variety doesn’t bother it, but lengthier criticism that rabbits on for several paragraphs poses more of a threat. Perhaps the ‘moderator’ is Wenger himself, supplementing his 8m a year by moonlighting for arseblog. Would explain a lot. Like why he doesn’t have time to apply his mind to match preparation and considering the ways his training regime might be responsible for… Read more »
I think it’s because some part of your name or email etc is caught by some of the filters we have – which are necessary for some of the stuff we have to deal with. I’m sorry about that.
I’ll take your word for it but it’s a head-scratcher because if it was really my name, or Stillmatic’s name, you’d think they’d have been caught by the filters from the outset, which wasn’t the case. I wasn’t moderated at first, nor was Stillmatic by the sound of it – he implies it’s something that’s only happened to him recently. What filters could you have set up that they take exception to ‘Stillmatic’ and my ordinary English first name? As for my email, I’ve used the same one for decades and you’ve checked that it’s not on your banned list.… Read more »
I really don’t know what it is. Your name, your IP, your email, none of them are blocked. But WordPress back-end says: It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress”.
In which case ‘rand’ would match Miranda, if that was it. But I can’t find what that might be. And yeah, it creates more work because you and Stillmatic are good commentators, and it’s frustrating. I’ll see if I can find it.
Thanks, that’d be great if you can be arsed.
What was that? Bring him on Arsene. .
Sadly it is time that our beloved Rosicky has to leave us. This young lad is full of promise. He was the one more talked up when he moved here with hector. Give him a chance, we have 3 gaps to fill in midfield this summer. No need to fill them all with new signings. (Or we could, but I doubt it)
I really would like to see him in the team next year (even if we bring some other cm’s or dm’s in the transfer market). I think he could do very well under the tutelage of Santi (sure, Toral doesnt have the same technique Santi has, but no many people do anyway, and he does have enough to be able to beat a man), and i can see him fighting for a spot with the likes of Ramsey and Elneny. He looks like a good player than if given the time and a chance could impress ala Iwobi or Campbell… Read more »
Do you think if he was English he would definitely be in our plans for next season? Same with Campbell?
He is English.
May have been born in Spain, I think, but has an English mother and moving back to England is one of the reasons why he chose Arsenal. He’s eligible to play for England, kinda like Eric Dier.
Of course, doesn’t mean Hodgson or England will pick him. Hodgson would rather have a Jonjo Shelvey or Milner who whichever you his flavour of the month at Spurs or United.
he is half english half spanish,i think his mum is english
Why hasn’t he been picked for england u-21s at all?
He played for Spain at U17 and U19 I think, so would naturally look to progress through the Spanish sides.
Of course the English FA should be tapping him up just as they should have done everything to convince Iwobi, if they had any appreciation for football talent.
No chance for Toral. If Wenger gives him a chance the risk is total anarchy the minute he makes a mistake or we,lose more than one game. The only way to take chances on new players is to spend big $$ to appease the mob…otherwise they will turn on the player and team immediately…so sad. Hopefully Wenger will give him the opportunity but that would require keeping the promises made to the young players when they were signed and pissing off the mob by waiting to make signings while evaluating up and coming players…business as usual and automatic failure in… Read more »
Man, I’d someday like to know what kind of drugs they’re on at La Masia. They just keep pumping out quality.
He’s technically gifted and he’s looks like he has physical presence. It’s worth the gamble to add him to the first team.
Comment: Good one for him
When I think back to mullahs bendtner on loan keying cars in Sunderland I can only be proud of Toral
If Wenger want to give him a chance, you people will complain he didnt sign players… When will Wenger ever get it right again? I hope soonest
Checked his video, I hope he gets more chances than what Joel Campbell got this season. Deserves to play in the senior team for atleast a year. Surely better than Serge Gnabry. :/
Wenger will asks Elneny to tell Toral off his advice about shooting outside of the box.