A lot of eyebrows were raised when Arsenal after many steals of young La Masia products like Snake Fabregas and Merida were allowed to sign 3 more products namely Jon Toral, Hector Bellerin and Julio Pleguezuelo (No this player is not made up!). Like Fabregas and Merida these were 3 very highly rated products. Obviously a lot of you are now familiar with the likes of Bellerin who has impressed us all with some very decent performances at RB. His best friend Toral however is a midfielder, a position Arsenal currently have almost seemingly an infinite amount of players. Forget already established players like Rambo and Wilshere to contend and compete with, Toral also has to compete with highly rated prospects Crowley and Zelalem. Playing with the youth team will only yield you little bit of benefit so Toral was sent away on loan to get used to not only the physicality of English football but also a chance to further develop with some game time.
For those of you with no idea about him, he stands at a decent 1.84 m height, has an excellent range of passing and is even half English! His mother is a British national, though he was born in Catalonia. He rose through the ranks of the La Masia academy where he formed a midfield partnership with Sergi Samper (a DM who now plays for Barcelona B and even played for the senior team in cup games this season). The 2 of them formed a great partnership. The pair would play together for eight years and were referred to as the ‘Samper & Toral Limited Company’ in the Spanish media. Since joining us he has been made to adapt his game by playing on the flanks where his passing ability has created many goals for the u-21s. He even has a decent finish in him. Jon featured 24 times across all youth competitions in 2013/14, scoring seven goals in the process.
MOVE TO ARSENAL
Toral and Bellerin moved to Arsenal for a combined fee of 300,000 Euros. It was a move which infuriated then president of Barcelona Sandro Rosell who called the move "immoral". Immediately Toral developed some Arsenal DNA and picked up an injury on his right knee in his last appearance for Barcelona that kept him out till November the next year. He then started playing some games along all youth levels. He initially struggled physically being bullied of the ball in almost every attempt. Slowly he began to make himself adapt to the situation. He slowly started controlling games and it was visible as to why Arsenal were so keen on him. Overall he played 21 U-18 games scoring 8 times, 10 U-19 games scoring 3 times and 26 U-21 games scoring 5 times (stats via Jeorge Bird). At this point it was felt that a necessity was there to give him a more physically demanding challenge to see if he can actually make it at our club. He joint Brentford from the Championship on loan in August in the hope of more game time.
LOAN AT BRENTFORD
A little over half a season is over and it is fair to say Toral has impressed most people with his ability there. He certainly has not played week in, week out, but none the less he has been given a fair amount of chance to impress and he has not disappointed. He has been given a free role to play when he has played. He has since as of today played 18 times for the Bees and scored 2 goals.
As of now it is hard to say if he is really prospering with his spell as he has come off the bench more often than not. He has though impressed many with the composure he has on the ball and has shown a lot of attacking flair. I have seen a lot of Brentford fans praising him for his matured performances in the middle of the park. His current manager Mark Warburton is a founder of the NextGen series and has an eye on young players. He has also taken Chuba Akpom on loan last season whilst having Nico Yennaris in his team on a permanent transfer. Toral when featured, has played as the most advanced midfielder and a position that has worked a treat for his development. He has put in some great performances including a splendid goal against Bolton. He is more of an offensive player than defensive. A look at his stats will show why he is so highly rated (stats via Squawka).
Stats obviously do not tell the whole story all the time, but when you consider Toral to be playing for Brentford, a team somewhat impressively in 5th position albeit in the Championship, his stats are very impressive. But like I said before stats do not tell the entire story. He has played only 591 minutes in the 17 games he has played for them. But the impressive part is that he averages 2.44 key passes every 90 minutes and creates 2.74 chances every 90 minutes, compare that to our little magician Cazorla who averages 2.41 and 2.62 respectively. Obviously Cazorla has played more minutes and it would be dumb to tell Toral is better than Cazorla, he is no where near what Santi is, but the potential is there for everyone to see. Toral has a 79% pass completion rate and a average pass length of 17.47m which is very impressive for the young lad. All in all despite not having enough gametime this is a boy who is impressing in every single minute he gets on the pitch.
About his future now. He is 19 years old already. He plays in a position we are overloaded in although most of the players there are kind of old. Still getting into the team will not be as easy as how his Spanish father seduced his English mother. He is half English which is a big benefit for the team. But unless we face a severe injury crisis again next season it is hard to imagine him getting any game time, however like Coquelin if he is patient enough the chance may just come, else he will unfortunately have to move on like Merida who is languishing in clubs just trying to get a chance to play when he was so very close to breaking into our 1st team. We will just have to wait and see. For now the question is still the same.. Jon Toral- Fabregas or Merida?
For those of you with no idea about him, he stands at a decent 1.84 m height, has an excellent range of passing and is even half English! His mother is a British national, though he was born in Catalonia. He rose through the ranks of the La Masia academy where he formed a midfield partnership with Sergi Samper (a DM who now plays for Barcelona B and even played for the senior team in cup games this season). The 2 of them formed a great partnership. The pair would play together for eight years and were referred to as the ‘Samper & Toral Limited Company’ in the Spanish media. Since joining us he has been made to adapt his game by playing on the flanks where his passing ability has created many goals for the u-21s. He even has a decent finish in him. Jon featured 24 times across all youth competitions in 2013/14, scoring seven goals in the process.
MOVE TO ARSENAL
Toral and Bellerin moved to Arsenal for a combined fee of 300,000 Euros. It was a move which infuriated then president of Barcelona Sandro Rosell who called the move "immoral". Immediately Toral developed some Arsenal DNA and picked up an injury on his right knee in his last appearance for Barcelona that kept him out till November the next year. He then started playing some games along all youth levels. He initially struggled physically being bullied of the ball in almost every attempt. Slowly he began to make himself adapt to the situation. He slowly started controlling games and it was visible as to why Arsenal were so keen on him. Overall he played 21 U-18 games scoring 8 times, 10 U-19 games scoring 3 times and 26 U-21 games scoring 5 times (stats via Jeorge Bird). At this point it was felt that a necessity was there to give him a more physically demanding challenge to see if he can actually make it at our club. He joint Brentford from the Championship on loan in August in the hope of more game time.
LOAN AT BRENTFORD
A little over half a season is over and it is fair to say Toral has impressed most people with his ability there. He certainly has not played week in, week out, but none the less he has been given a fair amount of chance to impress and he has not disappointed. He has been given a free role to play when he has played. He has since as of today played 18 times for the Bees and scored 2 goals.
As of now it is hard to say if he is really prospering with his spell as he has come off the bench more often than not. He has though impressed many with the composure he has on the ball and has shown a lot of attacking flair. I have seen a lot of Brentford fans praising him for his matured performances in the middle of the park. His current manager Mark Warburton is a founder of the NextGen series and has an eye on young players. He has also taken Chuba Akpom on loan last season whilst having Nico Yennaris in his team on a permanent transfer. Toral when featured, has played as the most advanced midfielder and a position that has worked a treat for his development. He has put in some great performances including a splendid goal against Bolton. He is more of an offensive player than defensive. A look at his stats will show why he is so highly rated (stats via Squawka).
Stats obviously do not tell the whole story all the time, but when you consider Toral to be playing for Brentford, a team somewhat impressively in 5th position albeit in the Championship, his stats are very impressive. But like I said before stats do not tell the entire story. He has played only 591 minutes in the 17 games he has played for them. But the impressive part is that he averages 2.44 key passes every 90 minutes and creates 2.74 chances every 90 minutes, compare that to our little magician Cazorla who averages 2.41 and 2.62 respectively. Obviously Cazorla has played more minutes and it would be dumb to tell Toral is better than Cazorla, he is no where near what Santi is, but the potential is there for everyone to see. Toral has a 79% pass completion rate and a average pass length of 17.47m which is very impressive for the young lad. All in all despite not having enough gametime this is a boy who is impressing in every single minute he gets on the pitch.
About his future now. He is 19 years old already. He plays in a position we are overloaded in although most of the players there are kind of old. Still getting into the team will not be as easy as how his Spanish father seduced his English mother. He is half English which is a big benefit for the team. But unless we face a severe injury crisis again next season it is hard to imagine him getting any game time, however like Coquelin if he is patient enough the chance may just come, else he will unfortunately have to move on like Merida who is languishing in clubs just trying to get a chance to play when he was so very close to breaking into our 1st team. We will just have to wait and see. For now the question is still the same.. Jon Toral- Fabregas or Merida?