Search the Community

"Analytics is a way of thinking..." - Rasmus Ankerson, Brentford FC Co-Director of Football. Warburton's end to Dean Smith Our first season in the Championship in 2014/2015 saw us compete with the second tier's best as we failed to win promotion after a brilliant season, losing out to eventual Play Off winners Middlesbrough in the Play Off Semi Finals. Mid way through the season it was to be announced that Mark Warburton's contract would not be extended and Brentford FC would bring in a new manager in the Summer as we looked to make the best of statistical analysis in a game dominated by £££. We appointed Marinus Dijkhuizen, who eventually was sacked due to a personal difference between him and the players after a poor run of results, our owner Matthew Benham later came out and admitted a mistake was made when appointing him as the club ignored the advice of an agent that referred to the issues the players had. Development Squad Manager Lee Carlsey was put in charge, he lost his first two games however went onto winning the Championship MOTM award after winning 4 out of 5 games. Carsley was soon replaced with current Manager Dean Smith, who at the time was leading League 1 with Walsall. The season was one of ups and downs for Dean Smith also, who lost 12 games and drew 3 games in his first 20 games in charge for us, causing most outsiders and a lot of fans to prepare for relegation. However from April onwards we won 7 games, drew 1 and lost 1. Dean Smith guided us to a 9th place finish in his first season in charge. Benham's Brentford I've backed Matthew Behham's vision of Brentford FC since the beginning, backed it when Warburton left the club and still back it today. I've definitely wavered at times, when Dijkhuizen was sacked, when Dean Smith couldn't buy a win for love nor money, but backed them still. In the end it's paid off for us and we're now in a healthier position as a club than we were in Mark Warburton's first season in the Championship. There were a lot of mitigating factors that the media and fans outside have ignored, even some of our own fans. We've been looked at as a selling club, a club with no loyalty, a club who's owner tries to get involved with team selections. But here's a list of what happened in our first Summer without Warburton: We got rid of a manager reluctant to add to a squad in dire need of goals throughout a January transfer window, and didn't buy into the club's philosophy. We lost a key player and arguably best midfielder in the division after a great loan deal in Alex Pritchard. We had key players in a position to hold the club to ransom on short contracts. We lost Jonathan Douglas, Stuart Dallas and Toumani Diagouraga all to "bigger" clubs who could afford bigger wages (Ipswich and Leeds x2). We lost Moses Odubajo to Hull City and sold Andre Gray to Burnley. AFTER SELLING ANDRE GRAY FOR £9M, WE STILL WEREN'T FFP COMPLIANT. We did not have the funds to keep the team that played under MW together, and would never have challenged again in the same way. Our star summer signing, Andreas Bjelland, broke his leg in a pre-season friendly. In the January transfer window, our best defender James Tarkowski refused to play for us so he could move "up norf" to Burnley, to be near his sick mum. The playing staff was largely ripped apart as we rebuilt a squad that would be younger, have more potential and be on longer contracts. It was the beginning of a period of upheaval and change as the club had little control over it's short term future. The one clear mistake was Marinus Dijkhuizen, however Dean Smith has shown we have our manager right now. We've had a mixed season as the rebuild has continued with the youngest squad in the league, we also sold Scott Hogan to Villa in January for around £12m-£15m. After selling Hogan we've been able to bring back Canos on a 5 year deal, bring back Jota and offer a contract extension till the end of next season, re-sign Alan Judge on a two year deal after he was due to leave the club on a free and also sign young and promising full back Rico Henry from Walsall. Since selling Hogan we have averaged 2 goals a game with the goals now being spread around the team as opposed to being reliant on him. Current Players on Long Term Contracts Our current team has key players on long term contracts: Yennaris 2019 Sawyers 2020 Rico Henry 2021 Ryan Woods 2020 Judge 2019 Egan 2020 Canos 2021 (plus 1 year option) Bentley 2020 Josh Clarke 2020 Introduction of the B Team, goodbye Academy After losing our most promising academy product Joseph Bogui for a pittance to Manchester United, the club made the decision to close down our academy entirely. All funds and focus from the academy has been set into a B Team, a side which is there to offer young players on the fringe of first team professional football an environment to grow in and play the best academies from around the world, with a direct route into first team Championship football should the players be good enough, rather than be loaned out with futures unknown. Our B Team this season have played Chelsea, Man City, Villarreal, Valencia, Liverpool, Man Utd, Southampton, Tottenham, Bayern Munich, Hamburg, Crystal Palace and the Nike Academy. We have had wins over Hamburg, Southampton, Man Utd, Liverpool and West Brom, as well as other clubs. We've seen many B Team players make the first team bench and also seen B Team players break through to the first team, like Josh Clarke and Tom Field. Premier League Ambitions Currently we're around 10-12 points off of the play offs and in good form, with a well balanced team. Promotion this season would be an achievement in itself but looks extremely unrealistic. Next season however I think everyone will see a Brentford team in and around the play offs and promotion places, and we'll see a Summer where we're able to keep hold of our best players and actually strengthen the squad instead. The sale of Scott Hogan will have helped us strengthen in January, if we did receive £10m for him, we've spent around £4m on transfer fees and then wages will be thrown in there too, so how much is left of that kitty who knows. I hope we can strengthen with the addition of one or two key players in midfield and up front, but I'm confident with the team we currently have that they'll be able to step up and be a lot more consistent next season. "You should never have sacked Warburton..." - Every cunt going.