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Beesotted contributor and co-author of the Brentford Revolution book, Tim Street, shares his thoughts in this latest article.

Brentford supporters will be making their way to Villa Park tonight hoping the signings the club has made in its Premier League era continue on their current trajectory. For as much as we keep being told to trust the process (and we really should by now) there will have been times, especially during the more challenging spells of last season, when the Bees faithful could be forgiven for wondering whether the recruitment process which had scored so many spectacular hits on Brentford’s rise to the top (and helped enable it) had started somewhat misfiring.

There were, of course, mitigating factors – such as the ever-growing numbers of rival clubs trying to emulate the process and the loss of key scouting personnel in overseas markets. Then there’s the fact that even at this level, whereas rivals of a similar stature/level of ambition such as Bournemouth and Fulham are willing/able to splash out on Premier League-ready players, many of Brentford’s signings will be still be development projects which take time to come to fruition.

Still, it was frustrating at times to see the team relying ever more heavily on the players who got them into the Premier League in the first place, while those brought in once that historic place in the top flight had been secured struggled to make an impact. Of the signings made that first summer, only Yoane Wissa could be considered a resounding success, and even that took a good few years. After starting out as the Bees’ super-sub, the DR Congo international got more of a chance last season in Ivan Toney’s absence, but it was Bryan Mbeumo who really stepped up then, and Wissa struggled in Mbeumo’s enforced absence. Since his strike partner’s return, however, Wissa has been outstanding, especially this term, and has also arguably outperformed Mbeumo this season as Brentford’s most important attacking player. Just how much was he missed after being crocked at Manchester City?

Kristoffer Ajer will always be loved for his passion – who can forget those celebrations after an important tackle – and looks comfortable bringing the ball out of defence but has been injured too much to deem a hit or miss and played out of position too often to judge where he is best deployed. Without being too harsh on the final signing that first summer, the less said about Frank Onyeka, the better. Of the mid-season arrivals, Zanka proved himself to be an effective stopgap at the back when called on, while enough has already been written about Christian Eriksen’s time at the club not to need to trawl through it again.

Going into the following summer, in came young prospects Aaron Hickey and Keane Lewis-Potter, plus experienced head Ben Mee and internationals Thomas Strakosha and Mikkel Damsgaard. Until this season, Mee was probably the only one which could have been considered a success, moulding the defence together and landing the Supporters’ Player of the Year award in the process. Extending his contract in the summer, Mee’s powers have waned somewhat this term and he has had to make do with bit-part appearances, as he winds down towards an inevitable post-playing career. Hickey, like Ajer, has shown signs of promise but has been so, so unlucky with injury, and one can only hope he returns the same player after so many setbacks. Strakosha barely got a look in ahead of either David Raya or Mark Flekken, while we will return to Damsgaard and Lewis-Potter later.

Flekken was one of the summer of 2023’s headline signings, along with Nathan Collins and Kevin Schade, although Schade had been with the club on loan since the previous January. Schade, to start with, looked an exciting option cutting in from out wide, often coming on as a sub late on and scaring the life out of tiring defenders with his electric pace. When he scored a stunning equaliser at home to Crystal Palace at the start of 2023-24, it looked like the season was his for the taking, but Schade was one of many Bees players cursed by injury that season and he managed only a dozen appearances.

Indeed, injuries would play havoc with Brentford’s season, and the constant chopping and changing and loss of key personnel made it all the more difficult for players like Flekken and Collins to settle in. Flekken in particular got pelters in some quarters as he struggled at first to replace fans’ favourite Raya, with Collins, part of an unsettled and ever-changing back line in front of him, faring little better from the boo-boys. Both showed big signs of improvement in the second half of the season, and it was no coincidence that once Brentford’s injured hoards finally returned to the side, the club’s new signings started to flourish in a more rounded and settled side.

And so onto this season, and as the powers of some of the players who got Brentford into the Premier League in the first place – the heroes of that glorious summer of 2019 transfer window – perhaps start to wane a bit, it has been a delight to watch some of the club’s Premier League era signings finally come to the fore and show what they are capable of. Some of the Bees’ best performers this term have been the ones signed since returning to the top division, which was no more so evident than in Saturday’s destruction of Leicester City, in which the likes of Schade, Damsgaard, Lewis-Potter and Collins were not far short of sensational.

First, the hat-trick hero Schade. The young German has so clearly struggled at times this season, and it’s been so very sad to see him carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders as chance after chance has gone begging. Not so on Saturday. Not just a hat-trick, but three excellent finishes, not to mention top instincts to get in the right positions, and an impressive assist for Wissa to boot. Hopefully that performance will have eased some of the self-doubt which seems to have been plaguing Schade this season and act as a springboard for his Brentford career.

While Schade came good at the weekend, Lewis-Potter has slowly been growing in importance in recent weeks, and the move to flying full-back seems to have really been the making of him. Although undoubtedly talented and full of potential, the Bees have struggled to get the best out of the former Hull City youngster in a purely attacking position, but marauding forwards from a left-back position in the last month or so, he has been excellent. The fact that in a stroke, he also seems to have solved what has been a problem position for the Bees since Rico Henry’s injury over a year ago, is an added bonus, and while we would all still love to see Rico back in a Brentford shirt as soon as possible, the emergence of Lewis-Potter in the position means it is no longer one we have to worry about so much.

If Schade was Saturday’s hero and Lewis-Potter has come to prominence in the last few weeks, Damsgaard has, for me, been Brentford’s stand-out player this season. Struggling for fitness in his first year, we saw glimpses of Damsgaard’s talent last season, but this term the Danish international has really been a delight to watch. His defence-splitting passes have become legendary, his movement off the ball is so intelligent, and for someone so slight, he has started to delight in getting his boot in too. In a midfield which earlier this season looked like it was going to be the team’s weak point this term, Damsgaard has become a shining light.

And so back to Collins and Flekken. Collins has, for my money, been Brentford’s best defender this season, and second only to Damsgaard in being the Bees’ best performer so far. Flekken, meanwhile, seems to have silenced any doubters and quietly established himself as very promising keeper. Most pleasing for me was, in the Bournemouth home game, when he showed he has learned when it was fine to set things up to play out from the back, and when to take some pressure off his back line by seeking out a long pass – which are almost always very accurate and immediately set up an attacking position.

So, it can probably safely be said that many of the summer of 2019 cohort, having helped deliver arguably the defining moment in Brentford’s history, have been relied on a bit too heavily at times for keeping that dream alive. It’s not a situation which could last for ever, and their influence on games isn’t perhaps what it once was. That’s not to say that most right-thinking Bees fans wouldn’t want them in and around the side for as long as possible, but at least the lines of succession and now looking to be more clearly defined, and those bought in since that majestic day in May 2021 are finally starting to not just show their potential, but also emerge as truly exciting Premier League players. And that’s without any mention of this summer’s signings, who it’s too early to properly judge. Hopefully there’s plenty of Brazilian brilliance to come in 2025 and beyond!

Tim Street