Brentford signed off pre-season in style – a 7-0 demolition of Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt at the Gtech, with Kevin Schade and Igor Thiago both grabbing two apiece and club-record signing Mamadou Sangaré marking his home debut with an absolute rocket. Beesotted spoke to the fans straight after the final whistle, then took the debrief back to the Steam Packet pub on the banks of The Thames. Here’s ten things we took from it, before all attention focuses on Tottenham next Saturday.
1. Sangaré Already Looks Like He Belongs
Twelve minutes into his home debut, the club-record signing controlled a header on his chest just outside the box and lashed a volley past Kauã Santos before the Frankfurt keeper could even get a proper hand on it. It was the kind of goal and performance that makes his transfer fee look reasonable overnight. “He don’t half put himself about,” was the verdict from the Steam Packet afterwards – and watching him fling himself into every second ball for ninety minutes, it’s hard to argue. Whether he plays all 38 games this season is another question. Whether he’s already Brentford’s most watchable player is not.
2. Schade Answered Every Question
Kevin Schade split opinion for most of last season – “he’s Marmite,” as one host put it, with some fans unconvinced he was showing his true level. There was a theory doing the rounds that today’s brace was a shop window audition for a move elsewhere. Word from inside the camp suggests otherwise: Schade is expected to stay at Brentford, and on this evidence that’s very good news. He opened the scoring inside two minutes, latching onto Nathan Collins’ knock-down, and finished things off with the seventh, sweeping home Thiago’s cross with the composure of a man who’s got nothing left to prove.
3. Thiago Is Doing What Strikers Are Supposed To Do
Igor Thiago’s double added to his impressive pre-season tally and he’d have had a hat-trick if his close-range effort hadn’t cannoned back off the post. Both goals were the product of genuine centre-forward instinct – rounding the keeper to square for an open goal, then ghosting in at the back post to finish first time. If Brentford needed reassurance that the goals will keep coming this season, this was about as emphatic as it gets.
4. Keith Andrews Isn’t Getting Carried Away – Publicly, Anyway
Asked to sum up the win, the head coach kept it measured. “It was a really good pre-season, full stop,” Andrews adding: “I’m really content with the way we’re moving as a group, the standards we set, the way the players pushed, and there were some really impressive performances today.” Calm words for a 7-0. Down at the Steam Packet, the mood was considerably less restrained.
5. Frankfurt Brought No Fans
Frankfurt were meant to bring a significant travelling supporters. On the day, Beesotted counted somewhere between seven and ten, several of whom had apparently wandered into the North Stand by mistake rather than their own end. Somebody down the pub reckoned it worked out at about one Frankfurt fan per goal conceded – which, if it wasn’t planned, is a hell of a coincidence.
6. Even A Beaten Frankfurt Fan Rated Brentford Top Four
One of the few travelling supporters who did make it stuck around for a chat, and didn’t hold back. Asked where this Brentford side would sit in the Bundesliga, his answer was blunt: “I think they would take a Champions League place… top four.” He also put his finger on exactly what went wrong for his own side: “It was the first real team we have to fight for, and we didn’t fight.”
7. The Midfield Picture Is Getting Genuinely Interesting
Vitaly Janelt, Sangaré and Mathias Jensen started together in the middle, with Janelt’s left foot on set-piece duty from every corner and free-kick. That leaves Mikkel Damsgaard and Yehor Yarmoliuk fighting for the scraps, which felt unthinkable a few months ago. Expect rotation around that front three, with a switch to something like a 4-2-2-2 the most obvious way of getting both Jensen and Damsgaard on the pitch together when it matters.
8. Nobody’s Pretending The Test Was A Fair One
For all the goals, there was healthy scepticism about how hard Frankfurt actually pushed back. The concern down the pub was less “how good are we” and more “is this actually testing anybody.” It’s the same conversation that came up after the 4-2 win over Rennes in France a week earlier. Nobody’s writing off the result, but nobody’s mistaking it for a title-winning masterclass either – it’s pre-season, and pre-season lies to you if you let it.
9. This Squad Now Looks Built For More Than Survival
Callum Wilson and Jaidon Anthony both got their first runouts in front of the Bees faithful, adding to a squad that already looks the strongest Brentford have had in the Premier League era. The flip side of that strength in depth is fewer minutes to go round, which makes a decent League Cup run – not usually a priority round these parts – suddenly quite important for keeping fringe players sharp. Nobody at the Steam Packet was ready to say the word “Europe” out loud. Nobody really needed to.
10. Bring On The Tottenham
Pre-season is over, and the only thing that matters now is next Saturday, 5.30pm kick-off, at home to Spurs. We all hope that despite Tottenham spending £250million they will still contrive to lose at Brentford – and after watching this performance, that doesn’t sound quite as far-fetched as it once might have done. The Steam Packet’s already planning for an earlier start – doors from midday, the quiz shifted forward to make way for a 5pm assembly down at the ground. Get down early. The new season is finally here.
Hear the full post-match reaction – “Seven Heaven. Brentford 7 Eintracht Frankfurt 0” – recorded straight after full-time, above and throughout this piece. Subscribe on the Pride of West London podcast so the Tottenham post-match drops straight into your feed.
