Brentford can qualify for Europe this season – here’s why
This time last year Brentford were widely tipped to struggle. They made a mockery of the pre-season odds – so much so that they almost secured a European place. And after an encouraging summer, journalist and Bees fan Ian Westbrook believes they can do even better this time around…
I don’t want to get carried away by a 7-0 pre-season victory, but I genuinely believe that Brentford can qualify for Europe this season – and here’s why.
Three key things have been in our favour this summer:
- Stability
- Squad depth
- Star quality
Unlike many Premier League clubs – and certainly in complete contrast to the Bees 12 months ago – this has been one of the calmest close seasons I can ever remember in TW8.
With last summer’s churn in both the playing and coaching staff, few pundits gave Brentford much hope of survival in the Premier League. I, and others in the know, were not worried about relegation, even after the opening-day horror show at Nottingham Forest.
Things are so different now.
Nobody has left the coaching staff over the summer and Damien Duff has joined it.
And with Jordan Henderson the only first-team departure, the playing squad has stayed intact and in fact been strengthened in the right areas.
It was great to see the likes of Igor Thiago, Michael Kayode, Vitaly Janelt and Kris Ajer all sign new long-term deals in the second half of last season.
And with the additions of Mamadou Sangare, Jaidon Anthony, Callum Wilson and Jannik Schuster and the return to fitness of Josh Dasilva, Fabio Carvalho and Antoni Milambo, Brentford have – if everyone stays fit – a really strong squad.
One thing which contributed to the poor run at the end of last season was a paper-thin squad with half of the substitutes in each game for a few weeks being young B-team players who were never going to be brought on.
Now even when we do get some injuries, hopefully we have enough other quality players to cope.
Sangare looks to be a statement signing, given the other clubs who were supposed to be after him – and after seeing his performance on Saturday, I can see why. Of course you can’t judge a player on one game, especially a pre-season friendly, but if he keeps on playing like that, then we are in for a real treat.
Wilson is also just what we need up front – a striker who knows where the net is but is happy to play second fiddle to Thiago and start on the bench every week.
The other good thing about Saturday was seeing Thiago look how he did at the start of last season. He seemed to have shrugged off his scoring drought in April and May and his disappointing World Cup and looked confident again.
He held the ball up well and it was a delight to see him score the sort of goal he took regularly in the first half of the last campaign.
We could be in store for a very exciting nine months – bring it on!
