Speaking at last night’s fans forum, Brentford boss Mark Warburton said that he thinks it will take 95/96 points this season to win promotion to the Championship due to the strength of rivals including Leyton Orient and Wolves.
The evening, compered by Peter Gilham (who commanded the microphones throughout like a wily pro with experience of singing carols on the pitch with the Salvation Army), saw a number of questions fired at the panel by supporters, with further questions collated on twitter by Beesotted and BIAS
The panel consisted of Mark Warburton, David Weir, Frank McParland (wearing a natty zip up cardigan), chairman Cliff Crown and Mark Devlin. It was apparent throughout that all held Warbs in very high regard and there was a real togetherness which filtered through to those present in the audience
A summary of some of the main points is below:
- Saturday’s game vs Crawley is under threat due to rain. The blotter has been brought in but they are worried about using it on soft turf – it almost got stuck on the pitch prior to Bristol City
- Peter Gilham described the efforts to raise funds for a funeral for Brentford supporter Ron Jacobs as magnificent – total currently at £2700 and rising
- Marcello Trotta was named as penalty taker prior to Saturday’s game at Shrewsbury. We list three penalty takers in order in the changing room
- No fitness issues with Trotta even though he is often subbed. The management try to make sure all of the squad get pitch time where possible and stressed that we play a high tempo pressing game
- Farid El Alagui was described as a great pro but feeling from Warburton was that he was more of an impact sub after his injury and wouldn’t have had same impact across a full 90 minutes.
- McParland described Tarkowski as the best young centre back in the league. Feeling was that they don’t currently want to split up the Craig/Dean partnership so he has gone back to Oldham to stay match fit
- Chances of signing Saville or Trotta on a permanent deal are basically dependent on if we are promoted or not
- McParland had special praise for David Button – “our goalkeeper has been excellent”
- Sam Saunders is back running and had a scan last night.
- We are keeping tabs on Conor McEleney but it’s probably not the right time to bring him in for us or the player currently
- Lots of talk about young players being our future. McParland stated that he would want half our first team to come from academy in about 5 years time and talked in glowing terms about some of the young academy talent. Charlie Adams currently trains with first team every day, Alfie Mawson is out on loan but trains twice a week with Bees first team.
- Warburton stressed that we will only lose players to other clubs on our terms and at our valuation. We were happy to let Logan (aged 25) go out on loan because he sees Yennaris (aged 20) as a better prospect for improvement. Said, however, that it is a game based on opinions.
- Nico Yennaris was the best player in the Arsenal academy
- All players we bring in are now evaluated on whether they will have the ability to play at Championship level. Gameplan is to get players in early and develop them ourselves – if we get about 7 out of 10 right then we will be succesful
- We are one of only five clubs below Championship to have an academy. We scout across Europe for talent.
- We try to loan our own youngsters to teams who we feel will look after them, or to individuals that we trust to develop them. David Weir feels that big clubs (Everton, Arsenal, Liverpool etc) trust Warbs in this way.
- We never guarantee a loan player pitch time. Loan fees can however vary depending on how long a player plays for, whether they start games etc.
- We have taken as many tickets as we can for Orient away (c2,700). We have to sell a minimum of 2,100 in order not to have to pay Leyton additional costs
- A new stadium is likely to have reserved (numbered) seating. Mark Devlin believes that our fans currently prefer unreserved seating for games at GP
- We have three years once promoted to provide an all seated stadium (so GP would be OK in Championship for three years – if we were promoted this season this means a deadline of August 2017 for Lionel Road)
- Brentford have taken advice on things such as singing sections from other clubs – Cardiff were held up as a good example and we have spoken to them. Supporters groups will be consulted once we get stadium approval.
- Decision on Lionel Road has been delayed beyond next Tuesday – could be another month until we get a full decision from Boris/Pickles
- Mark Devlin said that he has had some good feedback to the loyalty scheme. Deems it a success but, yes, they are learning what works and slightly inhibited by Griffin Park. Membership of scheme slightly below target.
- It would cost about £20k to move the dugouts back to Braemar Road. With Lionel Road imminent this doesn’t seem like the best use of money.
- Crown admitted that we will not reach financial sustainability without Lionel Road. Maximum loss a club can make in Championship under financial fair play is £6m. After this there would be transfer embargoes etc.
Condorman
