Two weeks ago, I wrote a piece on the mighty , mighty Bees ..........
I make no excuses about writing about Brentford (yet) again, they are the team I know best and are perhaps the most interesting one in world football given how they are run, which is unlike any other club and whilst the cat is out of the bag now in that regard, we have been way ahead of the media and I have been supplying details of the revolution taking place at Griffin Park for 6-7 seasons. You can now read countless articles on the Bees and their "moneyball" approach, which it is not, it is quite a bit more than that, but is a good enough name for the media to use and as close as they are likely to get.
Brentford are about to play their 6th season in the second tier of English football in the last 65 years, that is 1992-93 and the last four, so, for most supporters, these are the golden years, but they "know" where the club is ultimately heading and that is most likely eventually into the Premier League , in a new stadium and effectively debt free beyond what they owe to owner Matthew Benham, with a blueprint for them to be self financing. This is in stark contrast to less than a decade ago when there was a very real possibility of the club having to sell Griffin Park, ground share elsewhere and probably do so in non league football, this turnaround is the true extent of the "debt" to Benham.
For those of you with an interest in football beyond what happens on the field of play, there is a fantastic breakdown of the club's finances for 16-17 by the respected Swiss Ramble blog on this page.
In that season, Brentford had the third lowest revenue stream, two of the other bottom five were relegated, the Bees finished 10th , they have been top 10 in all four seasons in the Championship on effectively a bottom three budget each year, money talks in football, Brentford have very little (champions Newcastle United had a revenue stream 7 times greater) and have to do things differently. Some clubs were clearly operating beyond their means , even in those 16-17 accounts it was clear that with halved parachute payments and not having achieved promotion that Aston Villa would have to "find" an additional £45m to stay within their FFP shortfall , Brentford were £18m within it and are run properly and with respect for the "rules". Some clubs sail close to the wind, others glide right on by and eventually will have to pay the price and there are huge problems at Villa and other big names currently.
Benham has so far put £106m into the club, as I understand it , about 40m is in shares, the rest in interest free loans which could be asked to be repaid with 12 months notice. Around 30m has been spent on the new stadium (land purchase and legal fees), again my understanding is that the builders will take over Griffin Park and the land surrounding Lionel Road (the new stadium) which will be used for commercial/property development, in return, they will build the LR stadium which the club/Benham will own . Things change and you can never say never, but I do not believe Benham will request any of this money until the club are in the PL, unlike individuals bankrolling other clubs, he has supported the club since childhood and has put plans in place, not just for now, but five and even twenty + years down the line, including after his passing ( he is still only in his early 50's).
In these notes I will touch upon some background information which is perhaps been less well covered in the media . Benham runs probably the biggest betting syndicate in Europe, owns Smartodds and Matchbook and also (probably) a share in one of the major asian bookmakers and has other interests in Asia which are very hard to pin down. By the nature of his core business, Smartodds, everything he /they do is secretive, but it gives Brentford access to data few other clubs have and an owner far more knowledgeable than any in the game and probably beyond what most head coaches know. In simplistic terms, the playing side of the club is run by committee, Benham, head coach Dean Smith and the joint DOF's Phil Giles and Rasmus Ankersen who are both "non " football people, Giles is a maths and statistics graduate who has a PhD in statistics and came from Smartodds, Ankersen is a motivational speaker and author, a "high performance expert" who is also chairman of FC Midtjylland, another club owned by Benham. Already you see that Brentford are not run on traditional lines.
Where Brentford do spend money is in areas that other clubs neglect and/or undervalue and they are not averse to making tough decisions, they ditched their academy after heavy investment, because that was just leaving them open to exploitation by the biggest clubs and went instead for a B team who play only friendlies against some of Europe's biggest clubs . Here they focus on recruiting young players aged between 17 and 20 who have been released by academies in the Premier League, as well as talent from “undervalued markets” overseas, using their analytics department to target these. This has already been a huge success, with Chris Mepham breaking into the first team and Wales senior side last season and the Bees having already turned down an offer of circa £12-14m for him after just 20 first team appearnces ! There are several others including, but not exclusive to Ellery Balcombe, Marcus Forss and Mads Bech Sorensen who are rated almost as highly and have been, or are about to be, upgraded to the first team. Balcombe for example is a goalkeeper with limitless potential, he doesn't turn 19 for another three months, has already been called up to the England U21 squad and has just been given a four year contract, the first of similar length since Mepham.
Scouting operations are run by the increasing influential technical director of football Robert Rowan (another non fooball man) who offered this insight: “We have a good understanding of what kind of player can be successful in England. Part of our recruitment process is identifying different leagues where the physical qualities are often overlooked in favour of the tactical qualities, whereas in England if you are physical you have a good chance of being a good player. The tactical side of things can be taught and we are confident we can provide an environment where they can learn those skills. It’s a lot easier in those undervalued markets to take a player and put him into our environment for the longer term. Our job is improving the understanding of all the markets that are out there and trying to identify potential stars.”
Everything is done properly and for some time way beyond a level expected of what was then a League 1 side and now established Championship club, more along the lines of the best in the Premier League and there has been big investment in the Medical, Conditioning and Logistics department and that has proved beneficial in terms of players avoiding injury and massive fitness levels which was something we have often spoken about.
They have an extensive Performance Analysis team bigger than most top six PL clubs and they go through every players performance after games and sometimes even at the half time break if they have spotted something important and this is done not just with the first team, but at B level.
They also analyse opponents and opposition on an individual basis, they report to the manager and coaching staff on this during games and after the match, before doing a fuller analysis of the fixture. They work 24 hours straight through after the game between them, to have individual player and team analysis ready for Monday morning, this is a mixture of qualitative and quantitative information and more subjective tactical analysis of strengths and weaknesses.
Dean Smith has got a lot of the credit within football circles for the way Brentford play (the Bees have always played very attractive attacking football and Benham has demanded that is unchanged) and results achieved in relation to budget and, has been targeted by a number of bigger clubs who would offer him far more money, but less security. Smith fits into the Brentford set up well, is happy to concentrate on what he does best and enjoys and is content to be part of a team, he knows he will not be sacked due to results, as everything at the club is performance, not results related and if the team play up to defined levels, results do not have to follow, this is also fairly unique I would say in modern football. Of course, if you play well results will eventually turn in your favour.
Should Smith opt to leave, assistant coach Richard O'Kelly would move too, Thomas Frank would almost certainly step into the role, he is former head coach of the Denmark U16/17/19 teams and Brondby. Frank has been with the Bees for 20 months, has extended his contract recently and with a MA in Sports Psychology fits the Brentford mould and he has been increasingly active on the touchline with Smith during games ( I sit just behind the dug outs).
The Bees have just paid a fee for (quite unusual) and high salary to secure the services of Spanish goalkeeping coach Iñaki Caña from FC Nordsjaelland, Cana is incredibly well respected and was wanted by other bigger teams, his training sessions are innovative and intense and you have never seen a goalkeeper training video with over 100k views on youtube before ! This is him working with the Brentford keepers at the Jersey Road training ground. I have been told unofficially that the idea is for the club to bring in a largish number of young goalkeepers for him to work with and develop with the aim not just of fulfilling Brentford's needs, but with sale value, again, inventive thinking and unlike anything at any other club.
The signing of Caña was typical of how Brentford do business, very little is leaked in terms of their dealings and when it is, the deal is usually already done and dusted and/or interest has been dropped. Witness the recent signings of Said Benrahma from Nice and Erzi Konsa from Charlton for close to £7m total. These are huge sums for the club who were operating in the 0.5m- £1.5m range until last season, but their policy of "only" signing youngsters who they could develop and sell on has paid massive dividends and to showcase that , the Bees transfer deals over the previous 20 months to the end of last season were circa +£25m, at champions Wolves -£60m . These have enabled Brentford to move up the ladder and they are now looking at a much wider market and higher level in which they can shop in. Konsa was part of the England team who won the U20 WC and the U21 squad who won the Toulon tournament this season, Everton and Brighton had made approaches, but he chose Brentford (who acted quickly) where he can play, develop and knows the club will not stand in his way down the line.
Brentford will not stop anyone from moving regardless of length of contract, as long as their valuation is met. The £12m + for Mepham was well short and it would take substantial money to sign him or Ollie Watkins . They have sold John Egan and Florian Josefzoon for a combined £7m this week, the two new guys are kind of already replacements in situ. They do not need to sell anyone this season, infact, they could gamble and spend considerably more should they wish and remain within FPP, that would not really fit the model, but if they started well and that is overdue , they might opt to gamble in the next window and look to seal promotion in their final full season at GP, with the move to Lionel Road set to take place mid season in 2019-20.
Last season Brentford finished 9th six points off the playoff pace for which they were still in contention for until very late, they started the season poorly ( 4 points from 8 games) and dropped 25 points from winning positions , most before the end of February, so small margins between where they finished and a major promotion push. Stats indicated they had the best offensive in the Championship and that defensively, they had given up few real chances, but teams had overperformed in conversion against them. Infact, they were so far clear of the pack ,runaway champions Wolves were second in the two categories combined, the rest nowhere, it is embarassing to even detail them ! They had the second youngest squad in the Championship and only a blinkered person with no reason could fail to see how close they were last season and the growth and potential that the squad has within it.
We will have to see what the remainder of the transfer window brings in terms of ins and outs, probably not many of the former, unless there are other players leaving. Brentford and all the smaller clubs are helped IMO by the transfer window ending early this season ( @ 17.00 UK time on August 9th) and then we will know then exactly where they stand and that is after just one league game (newly promoted Rotherham United ) at Griffin Park.
I will update the situation either ahead of that opening game, or, more likely, once the window closes and we know what is what. We will certainly be discussing them a lot this season.
They have subsequently signed Reims central defender Julian Jeanvier who was wanted by other "bigger" clubs but said he was seduced by the project at Brentford and was "ready for war" two comments which have given him a lot of credit with supporters without kicking a ball !
Neal Maupay and Emiliano Marcondes both picked up injuries since writing, but the French striker trained on Thursday and head coach Deam Smith said that during it the dynamo Frenchman kept trying to impress and let him know that he was ready for Saturday, but it might be from off the bench, Marcondes will be out for a short time. Ryan Woods might be on his way out of the club, it looks likely , but Smith has played the final two warm up games without him as a starter and this has long been in the offering. Brentford have a suplus of midfielders (12 ?) who can fill 5-6 postions without a massive drop off in quality, along with several wing backs and in truth, one or two missing is only going to make selection issues easier for now.
Rotherham United have been promoted after one season in the third tier, I was big on them in the playoffs which they (obviously) won and ahead of which I wrote ........
I will put up an official bet in League 1 and that will be for Rotherham United. They make all the criteria, finished in a "good position" (4th), played far better than the other three over the second half of the season and were the only team of the four to improve and in their case significantly, from the first 23 rounds. They were the second rated attack in the third tier (see below) and lost just 5/26 to finish their campaign and have very high fitness levels. Head coach Paul Warne took the brave step to train extra hard in the off season, way beyond what I believe any other team did at this level, with the intention of coming on strong at the business end when they would still be able to play their high energy, hard pressing style, but possibly at teh expense of early season form, when players might be "leggy".
Warne is Mr Rotherham, two spells at the club as player, making almost 300 appearances and 15 years total with the Millers, when he took over as interim head coach in January 2017, the club were already pretty much relegated at that stage and it was a job that few wanted, but still a dream appointment for him. He impressed enough to be given the job permanently and then set to work, I will let him explain the routine for the Austrian training camp .......
It's the work in between (two pre season games) that is so important. The long days on the training ground, involving multiple sessions, are followed by classroom work at night.
For Warne, it's not just about building team spirit but creating a resilient group fit for the rigours of a long season in League One.
He said the trip had achieved everything he wanted so far.
"The lads have trained really hard, in fact on Wednesday they trained harder than they played the night before," he said, referring to Tuesday's 7-1 romp against Florisdorfer AC.
"Normally in the football world you play a match and have a day's rest but we haven't done that, we are trying to make them physically resilient and mentally strong. We are trying to break them a little bit and hopefully that will reap rewards as the season goes on.
"We do a run first thing in a morning, then a ball session, then we have breakfast and we train and do all the pre-hab stuff. Then we train them on the grass for an hour-and-a-half.
"After that they do an upper body workout and have lunch and a bit of down time because it is normally really hot here by that time of day.
"We then go through all the process again, with the pre-habs and the runs followed by an evening meal and we talk through the next game in the classroom and how we are going to play. It's hectic, but in a good way.
"We're not a holiday camp, we're at a proper training camp. There are no distractions, it's just gyms and grass, so its perfect."
Warne feels he has a very strong and interchangeable squad, they did the double over semi final opponent Scunthorpe United this season and are looking to become the seventh 4th placed team to make the final in eight seasons. After the win at Scunny in February the local newspaper described the victory thus :"Rotherham are fifth in the table. The team one place above them had just fallen to their relentless pressing, swarming attacks and unyielding unity. " That kind of sums up what United under Warne are all about , they have momentum and self belief and it is going to take something special to stop the Millers.
Two things, Championship is a big step up IMO and United have struggled with that in recent years and in 2016-17 were truly awful, 19 points behind the 23rd placed team, 28 from survival and in a mess on and off the pitch. They are clearly in much better shape now, but I do not doubt that their real ambition this season is survival. Secondly, take note of how they prepared for last season, with very heavy double sessions and they have gone down the same route this time round. last season they lost three of their first four starts and they might again be prepared to take a hit early, to play better over 46 games. Fitness levels are better the higher up the footballing ladder you go and even in Championship terms Brentford are super fit and more in line with an EPL team. That is why they come on strong in games and score so many goals late and we have spoken of this often , especially in games at Griffin Park. Here they almost always kick towards the home end of Ealing Road after the break, that will almost certainly be the case today and also mean the Bees keeper will have the strong sun in his eyes for the opening 45 minutes. At this time of year it will probably be the same for the United keeper after the break. Anyway, odds are low now, but easy to see Brentford seeing out the 90 minutes the better and when they are shooting the right way ! The Millers can be leggy too and Brentford possibly with their main striker playing from off the bench. How about waiting for a price ?............
