Thankfully, the transfer window is now shut and, as Brentford fans, we can breathe once more after a summer of turmoil. It wasn’t straightforward at all, with big players leaving, loads of speculation, a few exciting arrivals and a shed-load of grief from our all-time leading goalscorer so, it’s fair to say, emotions have been running high. However, Phil Giles, someone who has time and time again shown he can stay focused and disciplined, even when it seems everything is going crazy at the club, has shared his thoughts on how he managed it all this closed season, and his words do give a lot of perspective.
The last minute headlines were all about Yoane Wissa’s departure to Newcastle on deadline day. Losing him is a big deal as he was such an important part of our recent successes and, until he let the mask slip, a character the dressing room and fans loved. Giles admitted as much: “The big story is selling Yoane Wissa. He was a fantastic player for us, started off playing wide and evolved to take on the number nine position and had a brilliant season last year. He was a really good, infectious character who was positive around the players and the fans. I personally liked him a lot as well, so there’s nothing but positive things to say about his performances on the pitch for us.”
But as Giles reminded us, there’s no room for sentiment when shaping the squad: “Transfers are always complicated. There’s always a little bit of emotion, friction and dialogue. They normally stays in house but obviously this one spilled out. Nevertheless, it happened and we had to manage that. You have got to take the emotions out of it and ultimately make the decisions for the club.”
From the stands, it looked really messy. Yet Giles was clear it wasn’t any harder to manage than other windows: “It maybe just slipped out publicly a little bit more this time than normal, so people got a bit more insight into how things tend to play out. All transfer windows are quite complicated… my focus is always on that it has to be the right decision for the club first and foremost.”
Some moves were proactive, like replacing Mark Flekken with Caoimhín Kelleher early in the summer… others were more reactive, like bringing in Dango Ouattara when Mbeumo left for Manchester United, and Reiss Nelson once it felt inevitable Wissa would go. Giles explained: “Reiss coming in wasn’t something that, a week ago, was necessarily nailed and planned, but he’s a player who we’ve known for a long, long time. That was a bit more of a case of how we can make sure there’s enough depth in the squad.”
It wasn’t just Wissa moving on, either, Christian Nørgaard and Bryan Mbeumo left for Premier League rivals, Flekken and Mads Roerslev also set off for pastures new. In their place came Kelleher, Nelson, Jordan Henderson, Antoni Milambo, Dango Ouattara for a club-record fee, and permanent deals for Romelle Donovan and Michael Kayode. A lot of turnover, and inevitably that will take time to bed in.
Giles sounded satisfied with what’s now in place: “If you look at it, we’re stacked with Premier League players and I’m really happy with the depth of the squad. A lot of the conversations we had when we reflected back on last year with Keith and the coaching staff was, ‘Where can we see our team improving?’ Well, we were pretty good offensively and scored a lot of goals, but clearly the defensive end of the pitch was where you’d like to have seen us be a bit stronger.”
He was happier with the start to the season than most fans however; “In the first four games we looked pretty solid, organised and didn’t give away huge opportunities. Caoimhín hasn’t been throwing himself around having to make a lot of saves, so from that end of the pitch it’s been pretty positive,” he said. Going forward, though, it may take longer: “Offensively, it’ll take time to adapt and gel. I think we can be a bit better there but it’s not helped by two of the front three effectively being new in the team.”
That pretty much sums up where we are. A couple of good results, a couple of frustrating ones, and performances that certainly haven’t been consistent. But, frustratingly, that’s to be expected when so many changes happen in one summer. As Giles put it: “Relationships need to be built, that will take a bit of time. I see no reason why, as the season unfolds and Keith gets more time with the players and the coaches in general, that we’ll not get better and better at both ends of the pitch and can’t be really successful.”
The turbulence of the summer might have unsettled us as supporters, and the dust still needs to settle from deadline day, but the hope is that Brentford come out of it stronger in the medium term. We shall see.
Dave Lane
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Pretty sure most intelligent, informed fans who understand our recruitment strategy will just be trusting that with Kevin, Thiago, Dango, Reiss, Fabio, Romelle and Nunes we can find the right blend quickly to replace the goals from Bryan and the snake.
That aside, I hope Kelleher settles quicker than Flekken did, Kayode, Sepp, Collins and KLP look formidable and we have very good cover in Hickey, Rico, Ajer and Ethan.
Norgaard rarely gave us more than 70 minutes and Let’s hope Hendo has same impact while he’s on the pitch and he allows Mikel to work his magic and enable Yarmo, Milambo and a fit Vitaly to compete with the best midfields in the league.
A disappointing result rather than a poor performance at Sunderland and need to create and convert more in final third but think we’ll be ok