Brentford Are Scoring Goals. But Does That Come With A Price?

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Rob on March 6, 2017 at 8:06 pm

I’m all for youth, but I like a blend of experience to. Two or three late 20’s early 30’s who’ve been there and done it, and still have the desire to play football (Chris Hughton-esque comes to mind – he was immense for us at the tail end of his career). Players like that add experience and a calming influence to a pressure situation so that we don’t panick or lose our shape.
We have a team of young men that will get better and better given time, the problem we have is that due to the nature of our club we have to sell when the right bid comes along or the players contract is ending and we risk losing them for nothing. At the same time, it’s never been a better time to be a Bee. We need to grow our club and fanbase so we can compete a little more with other clubs in this division, and perhaps we can do that with Lionel Road. Whilst I’m under no illusions that a club playing in a 20k stadium is nowhere near the size of a Newcastle, Villa, Norwich, etc etc, with a state of the art stadium near leafy Kew / Richmond has to be an attractive option to any up and coming footballer, and hopefully some of the residents will take a peak at what’s going on over the bridge. And as has already been pointed out, we are a shop window for as yet unearthed talent.
Moving forward this season, I hope we get the next 9 or so points as soon as possible so that we can start giving fringe and youth players a decent run in the side. I want to see Shaibu, Cole, Mepham, Bonham (or Balcombe ?) etc getting 30 mins or so a game consistently. Cut out some of these mistakes that we do and I’d say we’ve got a bloody good side capable of replicating the team of 14/15 (who had plenty of youngsters with a 2 / 3 old pros to give us some nous).
The futures bright.

Tom on March 7, 2017 at 1:17 pm

A well thought out and properly constructed article.

For the record, I wouldn’t swap the current ‘attack first defend later’ attitude within the squad for a more conservative approach. Not being able to keep a clean sheet is immensely frustrating but if given a choice of sacrificing goals for a more frugal back line, well then it’s a no-brainer… In my opinion.

The only thing I feel should highlight is the experience thing and the hope that as the players get older, they will cut out the mistakes. Nice thought. Won’t really come to fruition though, will it? Simply because of the way the club is set up and run these days. Again, not something I’d swap (I love the fact we try to do things differently) but, ultimately, our entire business model is based around finding young, unearthed talent, giving them a platform to showcase their skills before being sold on a few years later for (hopefully) a handsome profit. Until we become a self-sustainable entity this will always be the case. Think about it… Can you really see the likes of Jota, Woods, Canos, Bentley, Henry etc. not moving on within the next year or so? The only ones that don’t move on are the ones who actually have limitations and The Championship is the outer limit of their ability (Harlee, for one, much as I love him).

So, for the short term anyway I believe all fans should brace themselves for a one step forward, two steps back kind of existence in The Championship. We’ll pick up enough points to survive comfortably each season but won’t really be able to push on until we change the recruitment model and start to bring in those seasoned heads on bigger wages that will bring that much need experience, nous and killer attitude.

Until then… Up The Bees!