Regular Beesotted contributor Luis Adriano gives his view on the goings ons at Griffin Park after a very very bizarre couple of days
Stats. Everyone now seems obsessed with the word; obsessed with the concept. Well, here are some stats for you: Over 90% of what I have read about my club, Brentford FC, in the press since February has had me shaking my head in utter disbelief.
Let’s be clear, I will gladly tell you I am as much ‘In The Know’ as my late Grandmother. I have no inside information. I would call myself the numpty on the terrace but I fear the excellent Nick Bruzon has this phrase copyrighted! What I do have, is the years of disappointment and scars from proverbial kicks in the nuts that supporting the Bees since the late seventies provides you with.
I believe this gives me a far greater insight into what is currently going on at Griffin Park and Jersey & Lionel Roads than any smart arse journalist intent on sensationalising a temporary blip in our continued progress.
Call me over optimistic but I knew we’d go up the moment the final whistle blew at Brisbane Road and we celebrated knowing those three League One points meant more than winning the FA Cup.
I knew we would have a good first season in the Championship.
I know for sure that we will not be relegated this season. We won’t be seeing League One for a long time unless the FL’s rebranding sees them calling their highest division by that name.
Yes, events since February have been a rollercoaster. Not just one of those little kiddie ones at Legoland either, one of those guaranteed to make you vom state of the art American monstrosities.
There has been so much written since then it’s easy for all the words to make you even dizzier. One phrase I read stands out for me though.
Matthew Benham used his Twitter after the news broke that Warburton would be leaving to state he will always do what he thinks is in the club’s best LONG-TERM interests.
In this fickle world of football, where some spoilt owners view their clubs as a play thing, here we have a genuine fan thinking strategically and laying foundations which mean we won’t crash and burn like so many others.
The football last season under Warbs was undoubtedly the most entertaining I’ve witnessed a team in red and white stripes play. No, I’ve never really watched Atletico Madrid. However, if he was unable to buy in to what the owner believes is best for the LONG TERM interests of the club then it was right for us to part ways.
I don’t want to dismiss his subsequent achievements but Mark’s first season at his new club was always going to provide opportunities to look good.
Who knows how he would have coped with the challenge of a second crack at The (English) Championship with all the 2015/16 season Brentford Injury Curse.
Possibly better than Marinus Dijkhuizen. The press seem to be revelling in the fact we have parted company with Warburton’s replacement so quickly but despite initial shock, to be honest this also now feels right.
I really wanted Marinus to be a success. Mostly to lay the Ghost of Bees Managers Past to rest and also because he came across as a decent fella. But then, John in Accounts at my work is a decent fella. This doesn’t mean he should get a sustained crack at managing my football team.
It may seem harsh to relieve him of his duties after less than ten league games, especially with the injuries and the pitch fiasco. However, things clearly weren’t working out and it is brave to admit it was a wrong appointment and stop any negative influence immediately.
If someone started at SmartOdds, or say your own business, and after three months you could tell they weren’t what their interview promised, then it would be right to terminate their employment. And so it must have been here.
So Lee Carsley has started with a defeat but now has the responsibility of steadying the ship. No doubt there will be more cutting words typed by hacks waiting for us to fail. The football played by the Development Squad since Carsley took over there has promised much. Give him more than a day with the First Team and hopefully he’ll have just as much of an impact there.
Rasmus Ankersen said at The Fans Forum that there is no Plan B, we have to be in the Premier League within three years. Only time will tell if we reach this target. I for one, think this is far more likely than us ever returning to doom and gloom of third and fourth tier football.
There may be a few more blips along the way but remember, everything being done these days is for the LONG TERM best interests of the club.
It’s all to easy to get depressed at successive home defeats with the opposition stealing our divine right to score post ninety minutes. Take a step back though.
Think who has put the money in to (nearly) secure us a brand new stadium.
Think who brought Mark Warburton out of obscurity and into the world of men’s professional football coaching.
Think who has bankrolled the playing budget so that signings like Callum Willock, Neil Shipperley and Tony Thorpe are a distant nightmare.
Please never forget just how lucky we are.
Luis Adriano
@LuisAdrianoUK
My God I hope you are right. I have my doubts though. I said on this forum a few weeks ago that surviving this season was going to be a real test and so it is proving. I also said I thought we would survive and I still do …. just!! You cannot rip out a successful management team and expect things to just roll on. Premier League in three years… I don’t think so, not a chance, but I think it always was ambitious. I really hope you are right on this Luis, but again I don’t think so. This season so far has been a shambles. Our squad players who will replace those injured, suspended or out of form were hammered by league two Oxford…. not beaten but hammered. We have amassed 8 points and I think most would agree that three of those are fortunate (Ipswich home and the win instead of the draw at Bristol City). We have been very unlucky with injuries, but lets not pretend that this season is going as we would have hoped or even close. Before anyone thinks this is an anti Matthew Benham post, we should be very very grateful to Matthew who has worked wonders and rescued us from oblivion. He is a true fan and I am vbery thankful for what he has done. As I have said before that does not mean that he will get every decision right and at the moment I fear things are starting to get away from him. I have not had his success and he may turn out to be right, in which case fantastic, I hope it happens, but at the moment the three years to the Premier League is much less likely than one year to league one. I too have supported the Bees since the early 1970s, the last three years have been excellent, really good stuff. I just feel we have got a few things wrong in the last few months. As ever up the Bees and here’s to me being totally wrong.
Sorry Luis, I don’t buy into this at all. Marinus we were told was the perfect fit for Brentford and was hardly selected on the basis of an interview. Perhaps stats were used as they are so popular at the moment, we haven’t actually had a proper explanation as to why we have sacked a manager who was right for Brentford at the time of his appointment and obviously so wrong for Brentford that an unbelievably long injury list was not considered suitable mitigation to allow a reasonable period of time to prove himself.
I wonder why you are questioning whether MW would have been successful in his second season in the championship, there is nothing in his long managerial career (including his time in the City and in various other football positions)to suggest that he would not succeed but this is not about MW this is about what is now happening at BFC so why even mention it?
As you state “Matthew Benham used his Twitter after the news broke that Warburton would be leaving to state he will always do what he thinks is in the club’s best LONG-TERM interests” but what if he is wrong? What if what he is doing or thinking is not in the best LONG-TERM interests of the club? You wrote LONG-TERM in capitals in your piece three times so I guess this must be really important but does this mean we cannot question decisions that MB makes? Marinus was a MB appointment, now it is a wrong appointment so commend him for acting swiftly, I’m glad I’m not working for you mate! I’d like to work somewhere where I am given the tools needed to succeed, where I have some degree of control over who works for me and in the club situation – a decent pitch to play football, and a squad that is not decimated by injuries.
My first Brentford game was in 1957, I don’t think this gives me any greater insight than you have so length of support hardly means very much in terms of insight of what is currently happening. I was around at the time of the 60s crisis when we almost got swallowed up (stitched up should that be) by QPR only for Ron Blindell to come to our rescue. The lowest point ever in BFC history so might carry more scars perhaps.
From what I saw against Wednesday I would not be so confident we will not be relegated, we are facing a relegation battle but hopefully there will be sufficient teams worse than us.
A shrewd manager/leader would have people around him who challenge what he thinks or does not ones who automatically buy into the same vision. I would be very worried if the biggest quality needed was to have the same vision.
Agree with the two comments so far on here. I’m not a pessimist or an optimist, I like to think I’m a realist who makes comments based on what I see and hear from all areas of the information highway. I agree that journalists persist in getting the facts wrong as to why MW left; he wasn’t sacked, he just didn’t buy into the vision “in its entirety”. He was happy to use stats to identify players, but wanted the right to veto signing them; lets face it they may be arseholes who would disrupt the team! And I know he wasn’t keen to have so many specialist positions regarding every aspect of a players daily (and nightly) regime.
However, as you say, MB says he has acted in the LONG TERM interest of the club, and therefore was a hugely successful and liked management team being allowed to leave really in the best interests of the club when we could have delayed implementing every aspect of that vision until such time as MW would have left for a top club?
Has getting rid of Marinus and his mate, who had to contend with all the injuries and the selling of our main goal scorer along with a shoddy pitch after only 10 games going to strengthen our position with our “fairly new to the club” under 21 coach who has revealed that he does NOT want the job full time after the season ends?
That smacks of short termism to me!
I think we need to know the facts as to why MB has decided Marinus was the wrong decision to alleviate the growing unrest concerning the Bees fraternity.
I’m also a long term fan…not quite as long as everyone on here, but I’ve been a Bee for over 30 years, and I attend matches with my old man and his mate who are probably up there with you, and the feeling is definitely one of concern, and we need the reassurance that the owner hasn’t let his ego get in the way and wants to, by stats, do a Ron Noades! Because it’s very easy to become cynical when the facts are not quite there to defend the actions.
Luis has got it just about right. The players at Brentford are very gifted footballers as are those currently injured. They have all bought into the Brentford vision – and put their reputations on the line in doing so. They are the most talented group of players since I first visited GP in 1954 and are the nucleus of a Premiership team within the three year horizon that Benham wants. Brentford is unrecognisable since he arrived and the future is frighteningly positive. So what if Brentford has a short period of turmoil as some long term structures are put in place – because come season end Brentford will be in or very close to the play offs.
So many negative people that can find a problem for every solution crying doom at such an early stage of the season and writing Brentford off is really quite amazing.
Give the players the respect they deserve – and Benham and the management group from saving Brentford from oblivion just a few short years ago years ago.
David, it is not a question of being negative, just not thinking that MB will get every decision right. Not sure what you do, but it is good practise in a long term plan to have checks and balances, adjust wrong decisions and sometimes to refocus and put things right in pursuit of the longer term goal. Just because we have different opinions on the less than ideal situation at the moment does not mean we are negative, just that we lack a blind faith in another human being, albeit a very talented one such as MB. Note I said blind faith, not faith. I think he has a better than average chance of getting things right long term, I am just not happy with the backward step (large backward step) from the end of last season. I am a bit unclear why you want to criticise those that put forward alternative viewpoints, but still that is up to you old chap.
Agree with you Adrian. I’m not being negative and can see you’re not either. Just presented with what’s in front of me it’s a little disconcerting. We’ve had to rebuild at the start of this season because the previous coaching staff have left and we are struggling to get going. At the end of this season what will happen? The current coaching staff will be leaving (as already hinted at by Lee himself) and we’ll have to start yet again with another management team. I don’t understand how that gives us long term stability
Some good points made by all off the above
The one thing that worries me is the back four last year cost us dear but nothing to much said as out attacking options always paid off
Quite clear dean n tardozki can’t play together and the choice off skipper not the best
Had his head down as soon as brum scored he at least should get the boys wound up again
New this was gonna be hard I think were in for a dog fight but happy with that we have moved forward so much last ten years it wouldn’t be brentford if it was all plain sailing
Ps be going there since 1969 so been n seen it all
Up the bees n keep the faith
Pps.
Why is griffin park so quiet
I can’t see the sense of giving the position of 1st team coach to a person who openly admits “I did not ask to be a football manager and it CERTAINLY wasn’t something I put my hand up for”.Installing a ‘caretaker manager’ at this stage until the end of the season seems more a short term act then long term. When Lee Carsley finishes his stint as 1st team coach will he return to his previous position of development coach or will he feel the need to leave the club.
For the LONG TERM interests of the club we need continuity not short term fixes, which means looking for a permanent 1st team coach now and letting Lee Carsley return to the job he enjoys and which he was initially employed to do.
It has been stated the players are suffering from a lack of confidence which will not be helped by the appointment of a ‘caretaker’ coach for the rest of the season.Players more so than fans want to know what the future holds for them.
Failing to see how there’s been any progression from last season over the last few months. Yes we’ve lost some important players but the majority of which we’ve had a sufficient amount of time to sort out replacements. I can accept that it takes time to gel as a squad but we look a shadow of the side we were last season in terms of quality. In my opinion we still haven’t brought in a natural number 10 to replace Pritchard, every game there seems a massive gap in that position which is pretty worrying seeing as we knew he wasn’t going to be coming back last season.
Agree we havent replaced Pritch, but figures of £6m were being bandied about as what we were prepared to bid for him. It turned out Spurs wanted to keep him and he got injured playing for England – so no chance of a deal. Unfortunately the value of a Pritch is so high that we havent got a chance of competing for players of that quality. The whole stats approach is based on the theory that we could pick up a player with the potential to be the next Pritch for the cost of a KK. Maybe it turns out to be John Swift?
This is certainly one viewpoint from a fairly extreme angle.
Whereas another viewpoint is that MB has over the last eight months made some decisions which have threatened to undo all his superb achievements of the last five years.
This season has been, as someone stated above, a total shambles. We let in goals for fun despite having a keeper playing out of his skin, while we lack cutting edge – the lack of pace in the team makes us very easy to defend against. From my experience of football, that only leads to one thing, especially in such an unforgiving league as this.
I would settle for 21st spot now and hope those in charge learn from their mistakes damn quick so we look to move forwards next season. However, nothing would surprise me if we were back in League One next August.
Great article mate. Agree with everything you say. Think we will definetly stay up and have a 3rd straight season in the championship. Stuff dreams are made off. Love you Matt benham
So it’s like this:
……We got rid of the bloke who knew what he was doing because he didn’t like what we are doing
The next bloke likes what we are doing, but didn’t know what he was doing
So we changed him for a chap who likes what we are doing, knows what he is doing, but doesn’t want to do it.
This is not ideal, but I get that not all appointments work out my main concern is that the communications around this are inexcusable. We are trying to build a new fanbase and in the modern world this means open community dialogue – trust – not Cambellesque Spin. Even my 7 yo sees through above and it is increasingly hard to fob him off with a beelieve.
I have been going to Brentford for 36 years, I love the fact that as I walk towards the ground I could be 5 years old and walking along with my Uncle John again. I don’t recognise my club this week, but I am in it for the long haul, I am sure many of the new breed of fans (so essential to the growth plans) feel trust and respect fade we will see beelieve start wear a bit thin.
The string puller behind all this chaos, is moneybags gambler, doesn’t that rate as below a used car salesman or estate agent in the contribution to civilisation and the human spirit?
Reminds me of a discussion I had at my old school reunion this year (coincidentally, Matthew Benham’s old school). We were wondering what MB’s father thought of his choice of career.
“Well, Matthew, you’ve got your A-Levels, which profession will you choose: Medicine? High Finance? The Law?”
“Dad, I rather think I will make a living gambling on football matches.”
Father picks up loaded revolver and retreats to the library…….
Good job he is a moneybags gambler Roddy my boy, 90 mill and counting, otherwise you probably would not have a football club to moan about.
Hobo, never mind the money, if he’s screwing up the playing side, which is the essence of everything, that is a failure; he should have left the footballing side to the experts and don’t be so patronising, boy!
So another day dawns, and after quite a robust exchange of views, perhaps it’s now time to settle things down and see what can be achieved in working together.
We all want success for our club, and Matthew Benham has nailed his colours to the mast in wanting that success.
But perhaps the fan base can provide some important stats too!
How about the stats that most people can see with their own eyes.
No ball winner alongside ‘Dave’ which previously gave him much more expressive freedom!
No one at the back prepared to drive forward when in possession of the ball to create more midfield dominance! ( Birmingham game)
The play by-passing at least one of our new central midfield players who, at the moment is caught performing an aimless role in no mans land!
The tentative starts to recent home matches when everybody seems afraid to make a mistake and plays ‘safe’ etc etc.
Is it perhaps the fear of ‘stats’ failure that is stopping this talented group of players from expressing themselves a bit more.
‘Stats’ need a built in risk factor, and this new model of ours needs to embrace that too.
Why not give the new man the chance to imprint his own image onto the team, and then tweak only after a ‘given number of games’.
If we were to do that, perhaps they would all start to have a mutual respect for each other’s professional abilities. The stats team could then input their data and the advice given, could be applied ‘discretely’ by the coach and his team in a constructive and beneficial way.
What we can’t have is ‘pressure to perform’. It does not work in any other constructive enviorment.
Keep the model, but give freedom of expression within it’s framework!
If we did that we may begin to see some real progress with exciting times ahead.
How about applying stats reviews after every 5 games, or say after a calendar month. I can’t believe it helps to give stats advice to individuals during the course of ninety minutes, or as has been said, at half time.
As I said at the begining, anybody worth his salt can see when something is not working properly, but an individual’s flair is a tender beast, and needs to be coaxed into the open.
Would the ‘God Almighty’ have been able to be so creative, if he had realised he only had seven days to create the universe. Now that is a statistic!
I don’t get to watch as many games as I would like because of work but l love the when mark left I said that was a big mistake you cannot decimate a team and still expect success the players they have brought in don’t seem to have a clue all I keep hearing is they need time to settle in bu how long do you give them I was at the Birmingham game &they didn’t seem to have a clue l fear for us this season Benham you chose to go this way but it clearly isn’t working do something quick before it is to late