Peter Atkinson, who was one of the four other hardy Bees who walked from Brentford to Hartlepool with me in February 2005, to help raise funds for the club when the Bees were struggling at the wrong end of Division Two, has taken stock of Brentford’s start to the season, and the gloom gathering in some quarters, and braces himself before suggesting that consolidation should not be a dirty word around our part of West London.
The recent sale of Andre Gray has prompted me to put finger to key for Beesotted for the first time owing mainly to a number of things I’ve seen and heard uttered in response from both fellow Bees fans and opposition fans that have been playing on my mind.
Now before I get started, I will readily admit to being something of an exiled fan since I moved away from London eight years ago – my support and love for the club has never wavered, however location and circumstances dictate that I can’t make as many games as I would like to or used to in recent years. In some ways though, this has given me a slightly more detached and balanced outlook on the going on around the freshly-replaced hallowed turf of Griffin Park and perhaps led me to having a more pragmatic view on our success since Matthew Benham took over.
We have had tremendous success over the past couple of years, more than many of us could have dreamt, and of course we all get wrapped up from time to time in the unusual euphoria of supporting a club on the up. The Premier League awaits! No-one can stand in our way! If Bournemouth can do it then so can we! I have no doubt that, under Benham’s expert ownership, we will make it to the Promised Land and become the subject of many cliché-ridden Sky Sports ‘rags-to-riches Moneyball’ documentaries.
However, I can’t help but feel that we as fans need to play our part as much as ever now by keeping our feet on the floor. We need to take a reality check every now and then to ensure that we’re not getting too big for our boots or forgetting the depths of despair that we experienced so recently. To finish 5th last season was amazing, but that doesn’t mean we must expect, nay demand, the same or better this season. We are very much a club and team in transition – introducing a full-blooded, innovative new strategy to hopefully compete with the big boys will take some time before it fully bears fruit; we’ve signed nine promising new players who will take time to bed into the squad and get used to the pace of the league before dazzling us; we have a new management team who must get to know our players before getting the very best out of them. Add into this the ridiculous run of injuries that we have had, particularly the long-term ones, meaning some more new faces will almost certainly be joining us and the start of the season could be a little rocky. We must stay calm, rational and stay 100% behind the club.
The Andre Gray saga feeds into the same line. We are still a selling club, just the same as every other team in the country (bar the top five or six). Just because we have had two good seasons, it doesn’t mean we can hold onto our best players when bigger clubs with bigger chequebooks come calling (and yes, Hull, Leeds and Burnley are still bigger clubs than us despite being in the same league). It would take an exceptionally loyal or visionary player to turn them down and stick with us in such circumstances.
Similarly, just because we are now talking ourselves up as a club with our ‘Big New Ambitions’ (a good positive marketing strategy to bring in new faces and boost attendances as much as a mission statement), it doesn’t mean we have to abandon realism. Of course we must aim high and dream big, but we have no divine right to finish in the top six again, certainly no more so than the other twenty-three clubs in the division, other clubs have strengthened, new clubs have joined, thus even if we do play well we just might not quite scrape the results and end up mid-table. Does that make the season a resounding failure? Of course not! There is nothing wrong with consolidating our place in the league during our ‘difficult second season’, continuing to build for the future and building up a head of steam for 2016-17.
We as fans must continue to play our part, keep the faith and not let ourselves get antsy the second our performance drops or we hit a dodgy patch of form. This is a long-term project, not a Gretna-style hit-the-heights-then-return-to-oblivion project. There will be downs to go with the ups we have experienced so far. If we get on the players’ backs, on Marinus’ back and start to go back to the ‘Little Old Brentford’ mentality, we are just shooting ourselves in the foot. The positivity must continue regardless. Consolidation is not a dirty word this season. We must stick together, get behind the players, get behind the club and never forget the mantra – ‘In Benham We Trust’.
Peter Atkinson
@peteatkinson83
As a matter of note: the Hartlepool Walkers were Pete Haywood, Rod Gowers, Dave Lane, John Dempsey and Pete Atkinson and we raised over £15,000 for Bees United and the Helen Rollason Cancer Care Centre Appeal. The full story, for those who don’t know, can be read here.
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Well said that man. Should be required reading for all Bees fans at the moment. Have some patience and enjoy the ride.
There certainly is an unbalanced feel about Brentford at the moment, but I suppose that comes with the new territory.
Everyone is watching to see how this brave new world, the creation of Matthew Benham, will fair. It’s early days and the jury is still out, but let’s look at what has happened so far.
Last season we bought very well indeed. Not only did we buy well, we seemed to ‘bring on’ certain players too. The net result was amazing, the ability of the team surpassed all expectations and the brand of football displayed was probably the best played by a Brentford team for many a long year.
So let’s keep faith in our brave new world! Our luck so far this time around has been appaling, what with the injuries to our ‘key’ new signings and the ‘pitch’ crisis it just seems to be one thing after the other.
The ‘school’ is the same, with the same ‘Principle’ who has improved the education standards remarkably. A new intake of ‘pupils’ has arrived and although some of the old boys have moved on, the education of the new intake is underway. It just remains to be seen whether the new ‘Dutch’ teacher is liked as much as the old ‘English’ teacher was.
Oh! And for the next few weeks it would probably be best if all Brentford supporters avoided walking under ladders and treading on the cracks in the pavement. Instead, try stroking every black cat you see!
I doubt Benham knows how to spell consolidate. I reckon he only knows progress, which is why he has been so successful in business, etc.
To hell with consolidation, just on board for the ride of your life with Benham, even if we all sometimes may disagree with some of the decisions. He understands the big picture, that not every detail goes to plan, but the direction and large number of correct decisions outweighs the wrong decisions here and there. We all need to get outside our comfort zone of justifying every difficulty or risk by saying that Brentford is small and that other clubs are big.
Premier League, here we come, led by Benham.
Benham has made some poor calls; he totally unsettled the team and the impetus that clearly was in place, when the decision was made to humiliate Mark Warburton and leak the news that he would be sacked; that cost us a very high chance of promotion and set the scene for the exodus of the cream of the excellent team that was assembled and mentored by MW and his excellent team. Now we have an uncharismatic manager, struggling with English, an influx of what looks like lightweight foreign players, as the manager has no connections in this country and the excellent relationships forged with premiership clubs, which resulted in the Pritchard loan, seems to have vapourisedI think common sense would dictate that this is no step forward, it is retrograde and damaging to the sensational achievements, albeit sabotaged, of last season. I think it is very telling, the talk of “consolidation”; fans are already, consciously or subliminally, realising that we are going nowhere this season, we could well end close to the bottom. The defense has looked fragile, with a weak midfield, which was penetrated right down the middle of the park, an unknown phenomenon last season. The treatment of a passionate and devoted player, such as Douglas, was nothing short of churlish and no credit to the reputation of the club; just read any of the quality sports correspondents in the press, as you will see that they think the sacking of MW, was crazy.
I have no problem with your opinion on matters but if you are going to criticise at least try to get your facts correct.
For starters Mark Warburton was not sacked – he chose to go as he felt he could not work under the system that the owner wishes to implement.You say the treatment of Douglas was churlish and no credit to the club without knowing the facts.There have been many issues with Douglas over time which are well documented and he had become a law unto himself and thought he was untouchable – he was wrong.
The season has seen us play 3 league games and already you are writing us off as relegation fodder.If after 46 games you are of the same opinion I will come back and say you were right but until that unlikely scenario happens why not see the positives which will see the return of long term injured key players plus a few more coming in to strengthen the squad.Or else go and watch Fulham if you enjoy being so negative about Brentford FC.
All top comments except the last one, negative, negative, negative, how short are their memories of how we where run financially pre Benham everything thats happened since he took over our club has happened because of him including employing WARBS who by the way was not sacked he was offered a contract extension but didn’t want it under the new structure, hardly a sacking in my book. So please stop all the negativity support the club as whole not certain individuals MATT BENHAMS A FAN FOR GODS SAKE NOT SOME FOREIGN INVESTOR. onward and hopefully upwards bees AND ITS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD IF WE DON’T now that we are at last a well run football club.
Oh dear, who leaked the news about Warburton (Agreeing to leave at the end of last season not being sacked!!) to the press I wonder? You need to check your facts.
Without MB we wouldn’t have had the players you mention who have now left because of Warbs harsh treatment as opposed to the large amounts of money being dangled in their faces, seriously don’t be so naive!!!
Benham is the best thing that has ever happened to this club in the modern era and deserves all of our respect, support, and a little patience when things don’t always go to plan.
Really??? I mean – really??? Douglas – good riddance, his disrupti antics are now well known. And if you think Mark Warburton was sacked then I have to question whether you are even a Brentford fan. My ten year old knows MB chose to leave on his own accord because he didn’t want to work under Mr Benham’s system.
He was not sacked, you cretin!
Now piss off and support another team.
I think to consolidate will be difficult for the Bees, the reason why is highlighted in your article and already played out. With success comes admiring glances and if at the end of a season, 4 or 5 key players move on and you have to buy 4 or 5 foreign players because the British transfer prices are extortionate, it makes having a settled team very difficult with which to grow the following season
New fans need to realise that in the 1960’s Brentford FC almost failed to exist due to horrendous mismanagement, for years the club lurched from one disastrous decision to another.In the intervening years the Bee’s made some good older player signings and more than a few young ones that moved on at bargain prices (we were almost the football league charity club).We also had some good potential managers who realised they were sleepwalking into brick walls.At long last we have a man at the top with a business brain who given time will hopefully get us into the premier league and at worst give the club a secure future.It won’t be simple nothing at Griffin park ever is at the roller-coaster club we hold with great affection.The new manager has some good ideas that are not British by our football nature,give the guy a good break.
Ye Gods, such antipathy. I think putting MB in a position where anyone who was not a scoundrel would have to resign was a misjudgement. I can back this up by pointing out to you that at the start of last season I knew our faith in Stuart Dallas was misplaced, that Alex Pritchard would have good and bad days, but never dominate the attacking aspects of a game, whereas Jota was a luxury we could not afford. Regardless of which I buy into the in MB we trust in terms of his intent but reserve the right to criticise his, so far, classy judgement.
Interesting discussion. I think there is no doubt that Matthew Benham has worked wonders for this club, he has been a breath of fresh air with a superbly positive and pro-active attitude. There is equally no doubt that he wants the best for the club and we should all be thankful for what he has done. That does not mean that we have to agree with everything and some opposing comment and discussion can only be good. I think the loss of the players early this season and more particularly the management team from the last couple of seasons will be hard to recover from in the short term. Consolidation will be good this year and I just hope that we are not involved in a relegation battle. With a bit of development and a fair wind we can get a decent mid table finish and hopefully push on from there. We have been unlucky with injuries, but I do think the class players of last year are largely the ones that have moved on and we have much work to do to find ourselves back where we were at the end of last season.
Exactly being positive and pro-active wins you things being negative dosn’t, yes we have lost a great manager and some good players that wanted away but i will bet you a pound to piece poo that Mr Benhams not feeling negative about it thats why the mans a winner in life and finacialy as we as a football club are finding out. AS EVER ONWARD AND UPWARD BEES hope thats not to positive for some of our fans
Good, it seems we are in full agreement then, that’s exactly what I said. It seems you are a little upset by anyone pointing out that not all the decisions taken will be 100% correct. Not sure why, but as you say onwards and upwards hopefully.
Dear Mr Atkinson
Consolidation, yes absolutely. Massive gambles however are unlikely to achieve this.
Unfortunately most of what has happened since May has been a massive gamble:
Dijkhuizen.
Working on the pitch at GP which already had an excellent surface.
Working on the training pitches at Jersey Road which already had excellent surfaces.
Ryan Williams, the guy who couldn’t get a regular game at Morecambe.
Gogia – inexperienced player in the lower leagues in his country let alone here.
The Hoff – inexperienced player in his country let alone here.
Barbet – see above.
Kerschbaumer – see above.
Selling Dallas – he’d walk in the team right now. How we could do with a winger with an eye for goal.
Bjelland was about the only non-gamble and the pitch mismanagement did for him!
It was the club I believe who mentioned about moving forwards – consolidation didn’t even come into it. At the risk of being called negative and a Warbo-lover, personally I think we’ve gone significantly backwards over the last few months – time will tell and I’d love to be proved wrong – and overall I’m very fearful of a relegation battle unless we conduct some decent business in the next week.
It’s very easy in this League to go from one end to the other in a short time – just look at Brighton in the last two years. And that’s exactly why you don’t take gambles like we’ve done.
Regards
Gordon
Dear Mr Anderson
You seem to have agreement off most people on here – I think malbee was one but you put it a bit more articulately than he did. However I would beg to disagree.
Consolidation – yes, of course, no problem with that. Though we have to mention at this stage the club’s stated wish to go forward. Personally, I think we’ve gone a long way backwards.
There is a fair argument that everything since May has been a major gamble. Hardly a recipe for consolidation. Let me list the gambles in no particular order:
Dijkhuizen – Respect his record in Holland up to a point, but he speaks poor English for a Dutchman and has no knowledge of our league as he admits himself. Hardly going to be helped by statto Giles and Ramsus realistically as regards learning his way round English football as they’re doing the same thing!!
The pitch at GP – Let’s do major work on a surface which was very good. Result – we get something that was dangerous.
Training pitches – Don’t know how dangerous, but similar outcome, give or take the month or so it’ll take them to get up and running.
Williams – The bloke who couldn’t get a game at Morecambe and so can suddenly step up to Championship football???
Gogia – Inexperienced player in the lower leagues in his home country let alone here.
Barbet – Inexperienced player in his home country let alone here.
The Hoff – See above
Kerschbaumer – See above
Dallas – He’d walk in our team right now. How we could do for a direct goalscoring winger now. Why did we sell exactly (apart from Statto stating he wouldn’t get a game)?
Bjelland – Not a gamble until the gamble on the pitch did for him (allegedly).
It’s very easy in this league to go from one end to the other – just look at Brighton over the last two seasons. One thing you don’t do is mess around unnecessarily, which is exactly what we’ve done.
I ask the following questions:
1) Is the defence any better?
2) Where’s the pace in the side now, especially up front?
3) Where are the leaders in the side?
4) Is the midfield more creative? Is it more robust defensively?
5) Where are the goals coming from?
If you can answer those questions positively as regards the team as it stands now, fair enough. Personally, and I realise I will be called negative and/or a Warbo-lover, I think we’ve gone a long way backwards.
I would love to be proved wrong on this, but unless we do some inspired business in the next week, we’re going to be caught up in a relegation battle.
And no, I don’t want Adam “too big for Brentford” Forshaw back any time soon!
Regards
Gordon
Of course we have gone backwards with all thats gone on in the last few months hardly surprising is it, don’t all the players that have been sold think they are bigger than the bees including Mr Dallas and if thats the case whats the point in trying to keep them. As for the pitches its been well documented why we needed to change them, all im saying is give the management and players a chance for 10 or 15 games, are they better than what we had 4 or 5 years ago to bloody right they are
I am firmly with the “glass half-full” section but I do acknowledge some of Gordon’s concerns. Being at the other side of the world my take on the situation is made from listening to Bees World live, Besotted podcasts, watching the highlights & interviews on Bees World & reading the posts of fellow supporters. Never the less I would like to put my views to Gordon’s questions.
1/ Defence was not a great strength last season. A years experience at this level should benefit ‘relatively ‘ young players Dean, Tark,s & Bidwell with O’Connell coming in at the stage they were at last season.
Colin looks to be a more than satisfactory replacement for Moses O.
Dijkhuizen’s previous club had a good defensive record & whilst he may have to tweak his strategaty to the Championship & the players to his wavelength however he would seem to have the basic’s of good defending covered.
Overall I see strong potential for us to be better in this area than last season
Two observations regarding the Burnley game
a/ hindsight suggests it may have been prudent to rest Tarkey after his injury at Bristol.
b/ Gordon made reference to Mr. D’s poor English. In his post match interview, an attempt to refute something the interviewer said resulted in him putting the blame for the goal purely at Hofmann. Even if this was his view to publically single out one player is not good form & I’m sure Warburton would have deflected the question differently I hope our becoming multi-lingual does not disrupt harmony in the squad. For the record from the limited view of the goal on Bees -World I can’t believe Hofmann wasn’t fouled as I felt Dougies goal in a 3-1 win last season was fortunate to stand.
2/ Montell Moore has been suggested. On bees World one of the commentators suggested that at training someone was ‘actually faster than Grey’ It may have been Moore he was talking about but I think it was Vibe.
3/ Don’t know much about the new blood & it may have been Bjelland earmarked for this job. Dean & McCormack has some credentials in this area.
4/From the little I have seen of Mceacran I felt he would give us everything Pritchard did last year. Macleod is still an unknown as far as the Bees are concerned but was highly rated at Rangers. Hopefully either if not both of them are available soon, I think Kearchbaumer has intregrated quite well & will only get better.
5/ As loved & valuable to our cause Grey was & Donaldson before him they were both guilty of spurning many chances. Stats had the bees with the lowest conversion rate of chances created. If we can continue to create chances I believe we have enough talent to convert at at least the same rate as previous & if we can tighten up at the back we will at least consolidate our position in the Championship.
Gogia. The last commentator maybe hasn’t been watching him actually play. He’s aggressive, determined, unpredicatable, ugly,occasionally shockingly skillful and he’s only been in the Championship for two minutes! Heaven knows where he will be in three months time – probably on his way to Burnley for another sweet £9M.
My question is rather simple. Why on earth is Montell Moore not playing as a first choice striker? Even last year it was blindingly obvious that he was a stunning talent. In pre-season fixtures this summer he stood out for his skill, pace, subtlety and poise. Is there some background issue preventing him becoming a super star this season rather than next?
I seem to remember just one year ago a back up forward plucked from non league was shunted into the role of key striker because of the injury to Scott Hogan, also comments about a young Spanish guy who would struggle with the physical elements of Championship football, etc. Some are a little too quick to justify the demise of Brentford and underestimate the quality of recruits. Like it or not, for Brentford to progress it is all about talent ID, development and as necessary, cashing in from the ‘bigger’ clubs that are not as smart as the guys running Brentford are in recruiting.
Ask yourself this question – if you had tipped in the cash that Benham has, built an Academy that is attracting outstanding young players, built a management structure that is forward thinking and highly talented, part way to building a new Stadium, attracting new players that just a short while ago would not even have considered joining Brentford, would you really be making the extraordinary doom and gloom comments. I think not.
Top comments David but they are to positive for some of our fans posting on here.
Just to answer a few points on here and to hopefully clear up any inadvertant ambiguity in my article, I don’t for one second believe that we should be aiming to stand still. You should always aim high and aspire to be the best you can be, as I believe Benham does and his methods are certainly progressive rather than regressive.
However, the point of the article was hopefully to put across the view that it is not the end of the world if we do not make progress (ie. reach the play offs or automatic promotion) and should not be deemed a failure in strategy or management. This is a long term project and of course some mistakes will be made along the way because we are all still finding our feet at this level. As long as we learn from the mistakes (which you certainly cannot judge after only four games) then the club will continue to progress, and we as fans must play our part by creating a positive, supportive environment rather than an edgy, fractious one when we do hit the inevitable rocky patch.
Come on guys. We have had major disruptions due to players wanting to move on and this is inevitable with a change of management. That change of management has been well documented and we all loved MW and what he brought to our club (including Matthew Benham), but we need to get over it and move on.
Bjelland, Jota, MacLeod, MacEachran? Could we have been any more unlucky?
With Button in goal and our defence of Bidwell, Tarks, Dean and McCormack we have started with MW’s first choice back four at the start of last season with Moses only brought in when McC got injured. Yes, I agree our midfield is looking the most rocky and is not the solid composed outfit of last season.
Despite not playing particularly well we have made an amazing comeback against the current leaders, beaten City convincingly following a totally justified sending off and lost by the odd goal away at last season’s Premiership Burnley. I shall dismiss the Oxford game because if I was the manager knowing the condition of that pitch and knowing an application had been lodged to postpone the Birmingham game, I would not have risked losing one more first team player. In my view, knowing he had to play that game, a shrewd move, however disappointing.
Not the gloomiest of starts. I’m sure Mr Benham is as apprehensive about some of his decisions as we are, but they have been made by a true fan for all the right reasons and with the long term future of our club at heart.
Bring on Reading and heads up for the rest of the season, as I can see in most cases they are.
NB. I take the point on Brighton, as I live down here, to the point myAlbion mate has bet me we end up in the bottom 10. Top 10 and I win….ch-ching
Dear Mr Malbee
Eye wood like too bee moore positive butt ewe have admitted that wee have gone backwards sew that cannot be consolidation in my book butt if ewe can answer my five questions in a positive whey then eye might come round too you’re happy clappy viewpoint if knot eye stand bye what eye rote.
Regards
Gordon
As i said Gordon after ten to fifteen games seems a fair reflection ps sorry about my spelling im dyslexic.