The news that Said Benrahma will be missing for the rest of the campaign is a big disappointment to all Bees fans. The young Algerian has enjoyed a hugely succesful first season in English football, and hopefully, will still be at the club next season as the Bees aim to make the last season at Griffin Park a truly special one.

Highly rated Benrahma hobbled off at Reading last weekend, and with so few dead-rubber games remaining for Brentford,  there is little point in rushing him back into action in a red and white shirt… although his nation’s African Nations tournament appearance must surely be a target for the tricky winger after featuring in recent international squads.

As we talked about on this week’s Pride of West london podcast, there is also an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory doing the rounds that the club have decided to mothball Said, just in case he gets a more serious injury, in light of big-buck transfer fee speculation. You can listen to the whole podcast by clicking the link below.

Rumours of Premier interest, and sums in the region of £25m, have been mooted as Brentford after the Directors of Football have without doubt unearthed yet another gem, but with just two weeks remaining of season 2018/19, what’s the point of forcing the injury? Even finishing in the top ten seems unlikely right now, surely it’s better to give our other attacking players the game-time and allow them to finish their seasons on a personal high than sitting on the bench waiting for a late cameo?

I’m off to Cairo in late June for an African Nations long weekend, and obviously hope Benraham and Kamo will feature for their countries matches against Namibia and Senegal, respectively, which will be a significant follow up to Henrik Dalsgaard’s achievements in last summer World Cup Finals in Russia.

It’s bound to be a long summer of speculation though, and whether or not Benraham starts 2019/20 as a Brentford player, we’ll have to wait and see. 

Dave Lane @beesotted100