Ivan Toney's transition from League One Peterborough to Brentford in the Championships was seamless during the Bees successful promotion campaign.
The 25-year-old not only won the golden boot with Brentford but he did so by setting a new Championship record for goals scored in a season, 31 in 45 appearances, plus two more strikes in the play-offs to send Thomas Frank's team to the Premier League.
Toney will now have the opportunity to play in the English top flight, but he could have already been there had West Ham heeded the advice of Peterborough director of football Barry Fry 12 months ago.
"I spoke to David Sullivan before I sold him to Brentford because I thought Ivan Toney would be ideal for West Ham," Fry told Football FanCast.
"But David didn’t agree and thought I wanted too much money and didn’t think he would have the impact in the Championship."
In the end, Brentford decided Toney was worth the money and stumped up the £5million upfront fee Peterborough were after with add-ons that could take the deal to a price in the region of £10m.
Speaking in April, Fry told the BBC that West Ham retained an interest in the striker but the fee will have sky-rocketed following his fine season in the Championship.
"West Ham were in for him - I spoke to David Sullivan recently and they still want to buy him," he said. "But Brentford wanted to put him in the team straight away. All the others saw him on the bench, and he wanted to play."
After a superb season with Brentford, Toney now has the opportunity to show West Ham how wrong they were to turn down the opportunity to sign him and to fulfill one of his own objectives.
"He has a burning ambition to be the best centre forward in the Premier League," said Fry. "I think he will get an opportunity to prove that very soon."
Fry estimates that it would cost somewhere in the region of "£30-£40m" to prise the striker from Brentford but in his opinion that would be money well spent considering what he believes Toney is capable of.
"He'll be the [Premier League] Golden Boot winner in a couple of years in my opinion," said Fry.
Toney has proved Fry right with his success at Brentford and if West Ham and David Sullivan, in particular, want to put right their 2020 error it will certainly be a costly mistake to rectify.
The Hammers are in desperate need of options in the striker department but whether the club will wish to make a move for someone they could have signed on the cheap just 12 months ago is yet to be seen.
Brentford's play-off victory over Swansea, a game Toney opened the scoring in with a calm first-half penalty, will make the transfer even harder as the Bees can now offer Toney regular Premier League football, something they did not have last season.
West Ham's superb Premier League campaign ended in a top-six finish and a Europa League spot next year and European football will be a huge selling point for the club as they look to add quality and depth to their squad ahead of the new campaign.
