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As Vic Reeves used to say… “You Just Wouldn’t Let It Lie…” Jim Levack picks at the WarburtonGate wounds and asks if there really is an alternative to simply accepting our owner’s decision to replace Warburton at the end of the season?

As the dust starts to settle on Stat-gate, it’s been a difficult call on whether to write any more about the situation our club might find itself in come May.

Will taking to the laptop make a blind bit of difference? What’s the point of muddying the water? Will my words just p*** people off?

Having left it a while, there’s still something eating away at me about the whole situation that I simply can’t let lie, even if it does mean I’m proven horrendously wrong in the long term.

It’s an issue that has divided opinion like no other. It even sparked a heated exchange between myself and Dave Lane, a bloke I’ve always respected for his partisan Brentford stance and intelligent analysis that have helped us see eye to eye with through the decades to fight common causes.

Friends of many years have sided with either Matthew or Mark and to some extent impartiality has gone out of the window.

The Matthew camp’s main arguments are variously “where would we be without him? Look at the infrastructure he’s put in place. Stat-based scouting works”.

They follow the rationale up with the line that bugs me the most “… and Jim, we’ve got no choice but to trust in him”. Not ideal but true.

The Mark camp meanwhile have a far less scientific defence to their argument, but it’s no less compelling. “Look at the league table, see how he’s managed the squad, the decision to bid him farewell in May is bonkers”.

Since the two camps dug in, I’ve seen several well-placed, intelligent and extremely convincing pieces about the success of stat-led football at Matthew’s FC Midtiylland. The PR machine is grinding into action.

Those features and many of the Beesotted crowd have all got me wondering whether I’m just hopelessly out of touch, behind the times or just hankering after the old Brentford way of doing things. But it’s more complex than that and I’m proud of the fact that I want to question things and don’t sit easily in one camp or the other. [I think the Beesotted interview with Mark Warburton demonstrates how even we have been with our coverage of this saga – DL)

I don’t subscribe to the growing view – perceived or otherwise – that simply because Matthew is owner and benefactor, his decision cannot now be questioned and anyone with doubts is guilty of treason.

I am also equally aware that by airing my reservations, it’s highly possible – given Matthew’s track record – that I’ll be proved hopelessly wrong. I hope I am.

So here’s the rub. I can see why Matthew wants to move towards a more innovative stats-based approach but can also accept why Mark won’t work without the power of veto.

Statistics, as Mark suggested after the Huddersfield game, will struggle to find you young untried talents like Adam Forshaw, George Saville and Marcello Trotta. Only a sound footballing knowledge, awareness of human temperament and old fashioned scouting will find them unless you strike lucky.

A man in charge of coaching footballers who has no power of blocking new signings thrown into what is often a delicate mix of characters and egos is effectively impotent when it comes to key aspects of team building, so who’s job is it to make sure the balance is right?

Mark has taken a tight-knit squad with him this season. His decision not to bring in new faces in January was, as results since have shown, arguably the right one. New people, the wrong people, forced into the mix can have a detrimental effect on those who have worked so hard to achieve so much. The manager is best placed to understand the delicate balance.

The bottom line is that you can be pro-Matthew, the visionary genius or gambling maverick, and pro-Mark, the inspirational man manager or stubborn fool to walk away from something so good. It’s a shame that principles come at such a heavy price.

This week Mark beat Chelsea’s Jose Mourinho to the London Manager of the Year award, an achievement that, disappointingly, barely registered on any of the Brentford fan sites or Twitter.

Did it just pass under the radar or are they tacitly acknowledging now that The Only Way is Matthew? If I’m being overly paranoid and it’s the latter, then it’s a sad day.

The fact is the award Mark and his team won will make us look even more curious to the wider football world – which, in awarding it, offered their opinion on the goings-on at Griffin Park – in two months time.

Winning promotion will make us look stranger still and could prompt Mattthew and Mark to sit down and reach a compromise… well we can all dream, can’t we?

Jim Levack