Beesotted contributor Larry Signy suggests we should show some faith in the players already at Griffin Park – and resist the urge to bring in any more new faces for now:
There’s been a lot of speculation on various fan-sites about whether the current crop of Brentford’s players can cope with life in The Championship.
After just a handful of games, people are already suggesting that some of our players either definitely will or definitely will not succeed a division up – and argue that The Bees should rush out and buy more people with experience of life higher up the League ladder.
But why?
Can a footballer play at a higher level than he’s used to? Well, surely, football is a simple game, and it’s the same at whatever level you play. A brilliant pass is a brilliant pass whether it’s played by Wayne Rooney at Wembley or Joe Bloggs playing on a Sunday morning at Gunnersbury Park.
It was Bob Paisley, who won 20 trophies in just nine seasons as Liverpool boss, who suggested that there was no difference between a long pass and a short pass – just the right pass. So bearing that in mind – why shouldn’t any player who has proven themselves at a decent standard of football be able to cope with life in The Championship?
Admittedly a player’s speed of thought is different the higher up the footballing ladder you climb, and that the best players can spot things just a fraction of a second earlier than others. But if a good player progresses through the various tiers of the game his experience will help him increase his speed of thought and adapt to life at that level.
We proved that we had an abundance of good players in League One last season – and our summer acquisitions have all excelled at other clubs in their career previously.
We are only five games in to this campaign (and are doing pretty well with two away wins already under our belt), so for now let’s not doubt our player’s ability to hack it at the level we are rightfully at. They are good players, so of course they will make it.
Larry Signy
