Season six is officially under way, and the crew were back behind the mic to talk us into it – Billy and Laney leading the charge with Matt also dialling in as a regular fixture and Jacob making his live podcast debut from across the Atlantic. Here’s the biggest take-aways from the latest Beesotted Pride of West London episode, before Spurs arrive at the Gtech on Saturday.
1. Twelve Months Is A Long Time In Football
Cast your mind back, Billy said, to where Brentford stood this time last year: Thomas Frank gone, Bryan Mbeumo sold, and a “rabbit in the headlights” feeling running through the fanbase before a ball had even been kicked. Twelve months on, the same club that lost its manager and its talisman in one chaotic window finished ninth, a header away from Europe. “What a difference twelve months makes,” Billy said, and nobody on the call disagreed.
2. Henderson’s Exit Made Sense The Moment Sangare Arrived
Jordan Henderson’s departure barely got a mention as a loss. Laney called it “the perfect outcome” given the midfielder’s injury picked up at the World Cup and Chelsea’s interest, arguing Brentford “needed the future in midfield to evolve” – and Mamadou Sangare, in his eyes, “looks like he’s that one.”
3. The Brighton Comparison Is Doing The Rounds
Billy floated a theory worth remembering: Brighton spent several mediocre Premier League seasons treading water before their board finally backed the manager with serious money in year six. Brentford, five seasons deep and settled under Keith Andrews, might be following exactly the same script. “We’re at that stage now,” he said, pointing to the summer’s outlay as proof the club senses the same opportunity.
4. JB’s Facts And Fun Kicked Off The Season In Style
The podcast’s resident stats man was straight out of the blocks with a history lesson: Brentford’s previous record preseason score was a 10-0 thumping of Tunbridge Angels under Uwe Rösler in 2011, and back in the scorching summer of 1976 the club looked at trucking in 30,000 gallons of water from a sewage treatment works in Isleworth to save the Griffin Park pitch. The 7-0 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt, JB confirmed, is now the biggest home preseason winning margin at either Griffin Park or the Gtech.
5. Nobody Quite Knows Why Frankfurt Were So Bad
Billy pressed the panel on how a side who’d played Champions League football recently could be so hapless, and Jacob, dialling in from Atlanta had the tactical answer: Frankfurt tried to play a high line with an offside trap and “got no help from their midfield either,” letting Brentford’s front three simply run in behind all afternoon. Matt reckoned there might be method to Brentford’s own scheduling too, pointing out clubs often pick warm-up opposition “based on the teams you’re going to be playing” early in the season, much like international sides do before a World Cup.
6. Thiago’s Assist Said More Than Any Of His Goals
The moment that stuck with Jacob wasn’t a finish but a knock-down cross for the seventh goal, Thiago taking the ball wide, beating two players and picking out a teammate with his left foot. “That’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for from Thiago,” he said. Matt tied it back to Matthew Benham’s known scepticism about judging strikers on goals alone, explaining the real metric is “how many goals do we score when the striker’s playing” – and by that measure, Thiago’s stock has never looked higher.
7. The Front Three Now Has Serious Cover
Matt made the case for squad depth in numbers: “you probably need five players that can play in those three positions,” ideally six, so a manager always has a like-for-like swap ready. Laney put it more bluntly – Jayden Anthony is “Schade’s sub if Schade’s not cutting the mustard,” and Callum Wilson does the same job for Thiago, cover that simply didn’t exist twelve months ago.
8. The Plan To Fix The Gtech Atmosphere Starts Saturday
Billy laid out a genuine call to arms for the Tottenham opener: get inside the ground by 5pm, wear red and white, and make noise in the half-hour before kick-off, with a fan march setting off from Kew Bridge around 4.30pm. Laney, jokingly promised to bring his drum, backed the idea to make a difference: “hats off to everyone that’s giving it a go.”
9. The Pundits Have Finally Stopped Writing Brentford Off
For the first time in years, nobody on the panel could find a single pundit predicting relegation. Guesses ranged from the Guardian’s collective eighth down to Sky Sports’ supercomputer at tenth – with the honourable exception of the Sun’s Jack Ross, who had Brentford 17th, prompting Billy’s verdict that it’s “a very good reason why you shouldn’t buy the Sun.” Billy and Laney are back on talkSPORT’s drivetime show this week too, a rematch after being written off entirely twelve months ago.
10. Everyone Fancies Beating Spurs – Just Not By The Same Scoreline
Guest pundit Ricky Sax of Last Word On Spurs called it a cagey 2-2, praising Brentford’s stability under Andrews while noting Tottenham’s frantic late spending. Back in the Beesotted studio, confidence ran a little higher: Matt went for 2-1, Laney backed a 3-0, Jacob settled on 2-0, and Billy topped the lot, going all in on a 4-0 rout. Whichever way it lands, all four agreed on the mood heading into it: calm, settled, and genuinely up for it.
Catch the all Beesotted podcast episodes, including Beesotted’s two-part sit-down with Keith Andrews, by subscribing over at www.prideofwest.london
