Things Others Say About Brentford FC (8 Viewers)

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Technically it was written as Go-Forth-n-MultiplyFord!
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Untouchable said:
Whilst there is always room for debate, McKenna above KA is just a f***ing joke.

View attachment 66196
Click to expand...
This is clearly a list designed to stir people up and promote engagement with whatever dross has been written in the article. Us as fans getting worked up about it is the whole idea. The people who've put the thing together won't believe in the rankings themselves!
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

1780067059342.png
An interesting table that tries to correlate Spend (Wages, Amortisation and Agent fees), and it's correlated expectation of points, with what teams actually got

Supposedly 5 years in we're still the 3rd smallest club in both Wage bill and total costs.

shamelessly screendumped from
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZvn3-kEp48
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Sianist said:
An interesting table that tries to correlate Spend (Wages, Amortisation and Agent fees), and it's correlated expectation of points, with what teams actually got

Supposedly 5 years in we're still the 3rd smallest club in both Wage bill and total costs.

shamelessly screendumped from
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZvn3-kEp48
Click to expand...

If they're comparing 25-26 performance with 24-25 wage information available they have surely been generous to Sunderland who have surely spent a lot more lately.

Yes it looks like we are in the bottom 3. Albeit quite a very clustered "expected" table - a "big 5" between 67 and 74 points, Villa Spurs and Newcastle another group in the mid 50s, another 11 all projected 40-49 points, and Sunderland with no PL money or parachute money predicted only 36.

Interesting idea though. Someone in one of the serious papers in about 2012 (maybe the FT) did an analysis of the best managers of all time based on club wages spend and finishing position to see who consistently overperformed their budget - I remember there were two tables but I think both Frank Blunstone and Martin Allen featured prominently.
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Phil Giles spreading the good word in the Telegraph:

The secrets behind Brentford’s rise and why this is just the start​

Exclusive: Director of football Phil Giles reveals how club were able to lose their manager, two strikers and captain and still get stronger​

Jason Burt 02 June 2026

Last summer, Brentford lost their head coach to Tottenham Hotspur, their two top goalscorers to Manchester United and Newcastle, their captain to Arsenal, and their first-choice goalkeeper to Bayer Leverkusen. At the start of the season the verdict was in: the “bus stop in Hounslow” would be decommissioned, relegated and their rookie head coach, Keith Andrews, would “win” the sack race.

Instead, Brentford finished ninth and were one missed headed chance away – on the last day against Liverpool – from qualifying for Europe for the first time. Added to this, their current centre-forward will probably start for Brazil at the World Cup and Andrews was awarded a new eight-year contract, as well as being shortlisted for manager of a year.

This is the story of how, once again, Brentford did what they do best, defying expectations by doing it their own way. It is explained here by Phil Giles, their director of football, who, in an exclusive interview, tells Telegraph Sport about:

  • How he wants to replicate the Liverpool “Boot Room”
  • Informing Thomas Frank he was lining up his successor
  • Motivating Jordan Henderson to prove the doubters wrong after failed move to Saudi Arabia
  • How it was time for both Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa to leave, but no big sales this summer
  • Seeing his job as being a “risk manager”
  • How it is “not impossible” for Brentford to qualify for the Champions League
First, Frank. After seven years in charge, the Dane was poached by Tottenham, having previously been interviewed by Manchester United. Giles admits Brentford had “been thinking about replacing Thomas for a while” because they knew bigger clubs would eventually come calling.

“It’s completely open and transparent,” Giles says, adding he had spoken to Frank about who should succeed him. “I always try to be absolutely honest as possible because, if you are not, all that’s going to happen is information leaks out,” he explains. “So, if I’m talking to another manager, and every season I’ll meet lots of other people who are head coaches or whatever, and that information gets out, the incumbent will feel under threat unless I’m completely honest about saying, ‘Oh yeah, I met such-and-such’.

“All I’m doing really is gathering information. I’m seeing what is happening out there. And that is part of the job, right? So, with Thomas, I was very open about it for years. But it was easy to be because he was in a very solid position. There was no threat to him.”

It was similar with Frank’s predecessor, Dean Smith, with Brentford talking to him about bringing in Frank as his assistant with a view to him one day taking over. Smith bought into the idea so much that Frank lived with him for several weeks when he moved over in 2016. He then got the main job when Smith joined Aston Villa in October 2018, leading Brentford to the Premier League in 2021.

Giles does not have an “active list” of candidates. “Because the example would be [Arne] Slot when he was at Feyenoord,” he says. “Maybe he would have been perfect to replace Thomas at some point coming to the Premier League, but he ended up going to Liverpool. Once that happens there’s no point. He’s there, he’s off the list. Spending time updating lists like that is a bit of a waste of time when Keith’s position is obviously really secure.”

Similar to Frank’s promotion, Andrews – the former Republic of Ireland midfielder and Sky Sports pundit – was in the building, having been hired as a set-piece coach last summer.

Again, Giles decided to promote from within, which, for some reason, has become far less usual at clubs. “Liverpool had the ‘Boot Room’ for decades and won everything and it’s like, ‘Why has that gone out of fashion?’ Why is it somehow tempting to look at the more glamorous appointment?”

It does help that, as well as Andrews has done, Brentford place far less emphasis on the cult of the manager. “It’s not all on one individual head coach who’s going to do everything,” Giles says. “It is true that the manager is still the public face. And, frankly, if we were sitting here now, me and you doing an interview when Keith was here, more people are interested in what Keith will say than what I have to say.

“But it’s just physically impossible for an old-school manager to be practically doing more and more stuff to the level of detail needed, so you don’t waste tens or hundreds of millions of pounds.”

But then Brentford have always been about bucking trends. It comes from Giles’s background and the background of Brentford owner Matthew Benham. Giles has a PhD in statistics and worked as a quantitative analyst at betting company Smartodds, which was started by Benham.

“In terms of coming from a sports betting background, we understand the randomness of football pretty well,” Giles says, adding that they are good at “shutting out the noise” – and perceived wisdom – in the sport.

“We’re not Man United or Arsenal. Our core fanbase has come through League Two, League One and, ultimately, most of them know that even if we were 17th in the Premier League, that’s still historically quite good for Brentford. So there is no real pressure from our fans,” he says.

Still, pressure exists. Last summer was one of squad upheaval – “it was a little bit more than I expected, to be honest with you,” Giles admits – with experienced goalkeeper Mark Flekken also leaving and replaced by Caoimhin Kelleher, who has been exceptional.

Giles, though, knew it was time for Mbeumo to go. “When you’ve had a player for six years and he’s done everything, and he’s got to the level where, really, the only step for him is to move on, obviously it makes sense for us financially to trade players at times,” he says of the Cameroonian, who was signed for less than £6m.

Manchester United paid £65m, with £6m in add-ons, after Giles refused to budge on his valuation. Even more spectacular was the fee he secured for Wissa. Newcastle initially offered £25m and ended up paying £55m.

Like Mbeumo, Wissa only had two years left on his contract. “If we kept him [Wissa] one more year, he would have been going on 30,” Giles explains. “So, while it wasn’t perfect from a football point of view, from a player trading and long-term, squad-building point of view it actually made sense, once we got the offer at the end of the window, to actually take a bit of football risk, losing players with 19-20 goals.

“This summer, with a year to go, we would never have gotten anywhere near £55m. Therefore, you are only displacing the risk. You are not solving a problem. Effectively, in my job, a lot of the time you make decisions with the best knowledge available, but effectively you’re a risk manager.”

So, his background helps? “To a degree my whole career has been based around that sort of stuff,” Giles says.

It also helped that Igor Thiago had already been signed, as had Kevin Schade, while Bournemouth were prepared to sell Dango Ouattara for £42m, who displaced Thiago (£30m) as Brentford’s record signing. The new front three have worked.

As with Andrews, Thiago is an example of succession planning, having been bought from Club Brugge for £30m as Ivan Toney’s successor in February 2024, before suffering a serious knee injury. This season the 24-year-old has been outstanding, with 22 league goals, only beaten by Erling Haaland (27), which was enough to earn him a Brazil call-up.

“It’s always great when that happens because it means that we can explain to our players that there are few negatives to being at Brentford,” Giles says. “The only negatives are: are you likely to win a Premier League? Probably not. Are the finances better elsewhere? Probably. At some moment that all comes together, like it did for Bryan [Mbeumo] last summer.”

He adds: “I think there are relatively few clubs who could take him [Thiago] from us. Maybe that day will arrive at some point, but his job for next season is to do really well in the World Cup and come back to us and get us even higher up [the table] than we did this year.”

Signing Henderson to replace Christian Norgaard raised eyebrows. The Brentford captain had signed a new two-year contract, Giles believed his future was settled, and then, out of the blue, Arsenal came calling. As much as Brentford wanted to keep Norgaard, they accepted it was a great opportunity for him. And a good fee for them.

“I had to stand our ground a little bit to make sure we got the right sort of money [up to £15m for a 31-year-old, who has barely played at Arsenal],” Giles says. “But ultimately it was a deal that everyone wanted to do.”

Henderson as a replacement was ideal. “We lost a lot of leadership,” Giles explains. “Bringing in Jordan was partly about that, partly about the football. And we knew that he had an opportunity to leave Ajax if he wanted to. Our pitch to him was, ‘Look, you obviously want to be in the England World Cup squad. We think there is a good chance you will be, even staying at Ajax. But the best preparation for making a meaningful impact will be playing regular Premier League football’.

“And, also, for him, coming back and just showing he was still at the level, having left [Liverpool] to go to Saudi Arabia. That he could still play in the Premier League.”

Given Giles’s expertise, does he predict where Brentford will finish every season? “I have an idea,” he says. “If we rank the teams top to bottom, I always think there is a bracket in the middle of the table where you can finish anywhere, frankly. This season of all seasons has been so tight. The margins have been so fine.

“We missed a header against Liverpool [in a 1-1 draw on the last day] that would have meant Europa League or nothing. Not even Conference League. It was so close.

“Are we, at the start of the season, a top-four team? Probably not, but you never know, with a bit of fair wind and a bit of luck. We were fifth in January. Is it impossible to finish top four? No, it’s not.

“It’s now about keeping the team together and maybe adding one or two more to see whether we can get those extra points we missed this year to finish where Bournemouth did, for example [sixth]. There was a possibility that could have been a Champions League place. So can we push ourselves into that group.”

2025-26 final standings​

It is so tight, Giles says, because so many clubs are “well-run” adding: “Palace are, Bournemouth are, Fulham are. Even when Leeds got promoted, I always thought Leeds would actually do OK. Like I thought we would. Forest came really strong at the end of the season. I think it’s a combination of some really well-run clubs in our middle group and also the financial power that Premier League clubs have got.”

Even so, there is a perceived wisdom – that Giles accepts – of a club’s final league position reflecting their wage bill. “To an extent,” he says. If so, Brentford are consistently outperforming theirs, which is “probably in the bottom four or five”.

Giles adds: “When we talk about expectations, people expect Brentford might struggle. I think they forget that we still have some very, very good players. Forget finances, wages, data or anything like that. That is definitely true.”

For years, Brentford have been praised for finding value in the transfer market. It is, Giles insists, becoming harder. But there are still gems. “For example, Michael Kayode,” he says of the 21-year-old Italian right-back signed from Fiorentina.

“We had a loan with an option to buy for €18m, a really good deal as we could have a look at him first,” he says. “[Midfielder] Yehor Yarmolyuk was £1.25m. There’s still definitely value out there, but I’d say it’s getting harder and harder to make sure you are in the front of the queue to get it because more and more clubs are now investing and are clued into these situations.”

Giles says Brentford take a “blended approach” to recruitment. Despite the sophistication of their data, they do not ignore traditional scouting methods – eyes and ears – when it comes to buying players, led by technical director Lee Dykes. Giles handles the negotiations.

“I don’t want to go too much into that exactly, of how we do what we do, because it’s highly confidential,” Giles says. “But we have scouts. Of course we do. You need to know a lot about the player outside of just what you know on tape, especially with young players. You don’t want to lean too much on a small sample to make a judgment, especially if it’s an expensive one.”
 
Last edited:

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

It was very interesting what he said about the Anfield Boot Room. I guess the real reason very few teams still have anything like it is because when a new manager is appointed, he usually brings his own team of coaches and assistants etc. So that when he leaves/is sacked, they go with him. Whereas I think I'm right in saying that when BFC appoint a Head Coach, he's allowed one personal appointment to assist him. So that even when Spurs lured a load of staff away when Frank left, there were still enough qualified people at the club left for the KA transition to be seamless.

On which point: "It is so tight, Giles says, because so many clubs are 'well-run' adding: 'Palace are, Bournemouth are, Fulham are'."

And all three are losing their manager in the summer. Do they have a Boot Room from which to appoint a successor?
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Gawain said:
It was very interesting what he said about the Anfield Boot Room. I guess the real reason very few teams still have anything like it is because when a new manager is appointed, he usually brings his own team of coaches and assistants etc. So that when he leaves/is sacked, they go with him. Whereas I think I'm right in saying that when BFC appoint a Head Coach, he's allowed one personal appointment to assist him. So that even when Spurs lured a load of staff away when Frank left, there were still enough qualified people at the club left for the KA transition to be seamless.

On which point: "It is so tight, Giles says, because so many clubs are 'well-run' adding: 'Palace are, Bournemouth are, Fulham are'."

And all three are losing their manager in the summer. Do they have a Boot Room from which to appoint a successor?
Click to expand...
Agreed.
It is illuminating to include KAs numerous references to the tough moments pre season. It was an incredibly tough time that I think really tested the model. Thank goodness it worked and fair play to KA and the team for projecting so much calm in that early time of undoubted turmoil
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Gawain said:
It was very interesting what he said about the Anfield Boot Room. I guess the real reason very few teams still have anything like it is because when a new manager is appointed, he usually brings his own team of coaches and assistants etc. So that when he leaves/is sacked, they go with him. Whereas I think I'm right in saying that when BFC appoint a Head Coach, he's allowed one personal appointment to assist him. So that even when Spurs lured a load of staff away when Frank left, there were still enough qualified people at the club left for the KA transition to be seamless.

On which point: "It is so tight, Giles says, because so many clubs are 'well-run' adding: 'Palace are, Bournemouth are, Fulham are'."

And all three are losing their manager in the summer. Do they have a Boot Room from which to appoint a successor?
Click to expand...
Bournemouth got their new man sorted early but he was not an internal appointment.

However they have taken this approach in the past - Jason Tindall and Jonathan Woodgate were I think both internal promotions after Eddie Howe, and Gary O'Neill succeeded Scott Parker. So I suppose you could say they promote the right guy if he's in the building but aren't always prepared for that happening (or, they are equally happy to take on a better candidate from outside).
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

An somewhat interesting thing was how read into it both Frank, and previously Dean Smith was in terms of who the internal candidate when they eventually left would be, with a more or less explicit expectation that they'd help facilitate that the person was ready when they got headhunted
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Sianist said:
An somewhat interesting thing was how read into it both Frank, and previously Dean Smith was in terms of who the internal candidate when they eventually left would be, with a more or less explicit expectation that they'd help facilitate that the person was ready when they got headhunted
Click to expand...
We do this all the time at Councils its nothing new to Brentford
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

I know it's not a done deal but a Schalke fan with 20,000 followers writes

View: https://x.com/Dallotelli/status/2062524297009119446

Translation
"I'll never come to terms with a 19-year-old German player with 18 goals switching to f***ing Brentford in his debut season"
Pleased to see #f***ingBrentford is multi-lingual
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Jay Bee said:
"I'll never come to terms with a 19-year-old German player with 18 goals switching to f***ing Brentford in his debut season"
Click to expand...

Sorry, but loses points for not posting "f***ing Brentwood".

6/10 - Must try harder.
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Hullbee said:
We do this all the time at Councils its nothing new to Brentford
Click to expand...
I can see how finding someone with the right combination of inertia, pedantry, self-aggrandisement and lack of imagination from a large field so that they’re not just useless but perfectly useless takes careful succession planning.

Potentially a harder job than Phil and Matthew have at Brentford.
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

More of a “under the radar” comment…. But had this survey from MI London yesterday, the new titled 100 Franchise cricket side based at The Oval (used to be the Oval Invincible’s).
Anyway, one of the questions was what other sports do you follow, ticked football…. Next question, pick your side:
IMG_8688.jpeg
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Gary Alen said:
More of a “under the radar” comment…. But had this survey from MI London yesterday, the new titled 100 Franchise cricket side based at The Oval (used to be the Oval Invincible’s).
Anyway, one of the questions was what other sports do you follow, ticked football…. Next question, pick your side:
View attachment 66354
Click to expand...
Total rubbish. How does ‘Other’ vary from ‘None of the above’, for example! If you don’t support anyone, then you don’t tick a box…
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

JANORAK said:
Total rubbish. How does ‘Other’ vary from ‘None of the above’, for example! If you don’t support anyone, then you don’t tick a box…
Click to expand...
Well I suppose you ticked Other and it came up with another box and you filled in who.
Where if you don’t support a football team at all, I suppose you tick the None of the Above. But assumed this question only came up because you said you supported a football team in the question before, so no reason to ever tick the None of the above box. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Gary Alen said:
More of a “under the radar” comment…. But had this survey from MI London yesterday, the new titled 100 Franchise cricket side based at The Oval (used to be the Oval Invincible’s).
Anyway, one of the questions was what other sports do you follow, ticked football…. Next question, pick your side:
View attachment 66354
Click to expand...
No Rangers either - written by a Fulham fan?
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

rebus said:
Most of his stories it never happened apart from being a sh*t ref. But it did that day and Orient had some seats removed from the away end if memory serves me correctly.
Click to expand...
the video shows the seat removal men
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Probably bull but in the aftermath there was a rumour Wendy Tom was Hearns sister in law or something.
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

Pretty sure Dean Smith scored the penalty.
 

Things Others Say About Brentford FC

rebus said:
Most of his stories it never happened apart from being a sh*t ref. But it did that day and Orient had some seats removed from the away end if memory serves me correctly.
Click to expand...
Some seats is about right. Away fans were at one end of the main stand at Brisbane Rd. Was on the terrace in front of the seats and there were one or two things flying overhead, but don't recall it being a barrage.
 
581 More Posts...
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom