This Saturday we face Brentford at home and ahead of this, we had a chat with Greville Waterman, long-time Brentford fan and author of several books about the club.
You finished in ninth place last season and are currently in 15th place. What has been the main factor in the team going backwards compared to the previous season?
Well it is glaringly obvious, I think. Injuries and the absence of Ivan Toney have had a huge effect on the team. We have lost so many players over the season and continue to do so. We are currently without our entire first choice back four and obviously we also lost our goalkeeper to a certain North London club! When you lose players like Ethan Pinnock, Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry who opponents just can’t get the ball past and you then also lose Ivan Toney who is the focal point and also the first line of defence and also Bryan Mbeumo has been missing since November, it’s so hard and we simply can’t cope. We were hoping to kick on even further and maybe even challenge for a European spot, but all things considered I think we’ve done well to be where we are.
Is there a fear that things could get even worse and the team getting fully dragged into the relegation battle?
We’d be deluding ourselves to not say we’re already in it, but we should be alright. Thankfully there are three bad teams in the Premier League so it’s a good season to not be very good. Luton seem to keep finding ways of contriving to lose points in games they’ve got themselves back into, Sheffield and Burnley are all but gone, as for Everton who knows with the points deductions that may still come their way and obviously also Nottingham Forest who might also have points taken off them. If we finish 16th or 17th I’ll be very happy and then want to get this season out of the way and reset and reboot over the summer.
Ivan Toney is back from his suspension since a few weeks back and has scored a couple of goals and he’s obviously been missed, but how do Brentford fans see him – is he a hero who has been unfairly treated by the powers that be or is there anger at him for getting himself suspended?
He’s a very interesting psychological study, he’s got such confidence and ability to focus on the pitch and maybe that’s his way of hiding that deep down he’s really unsure of himself. I felt that maybe he thought rules didn’t apply to him, but he’s a fantastic player and the other players love him so I guess the whole club were scratching their heads over this entire situation which was entirely his own fault. Now of course we should remember that gambling addiction is a serious problem and how hard it is to combat but the innocent party in this is Brentford and it’s galling that we have had to pay the biggest price here.
A lot of people seem convinced that he will leave Brentford in the summer. What’s your view on the situation and do you expect to see him leave?
He will be gone and as long as we get the sort of money we want for him then that’s fine, he’ll have been with us for four seasons which is very good in this day and age. He’s only got one more year on his contract and Brentford can’t afford to lose him on a free transfer so we probably want him to go as much as he does.. We’ve already signed his replacement, a Brazilian player who seems to be a bit like a Toney clone.
There have been rumours that Arsenal want him. Do you think he’d fit in with the way we play?
You don’t play with a target man and whether that’s because you don’t want to or you just don’t have anyone I’m not sure, but you have a lot of mobility in the team so I can’t see that he would play every week. But he’d be an asset to any team because he’s just so damn good.
Apart from Toney, what are the big talking points around the club at the moment?
Maybe that Thomas Frank looks a bit tired at times, he’s had to make bricks without straws and it must be very hard for him that whenever he gets a player back he loses another one or two. The time will come when he leaves but I hope it’s not at the end of this season but he deserves a chance at a bigger club. Other than that, we are on our third season in the Premier League and considering that in 2009 we were in League Two that’s fantastic. It might be hard for fans of bigger teams to understand this, but for us to be on the same pitch as these teams and then also to beat them though organisation, through outplaying and outsmarting them which is what we do is an amazing achievement.
David Raya is ineligible for the game, do you think this will have any effect on things? Could it even have been good for Brentford to face him seeing as most of your players and of course your manager Thomas Frank will know his strengths and weaknesses?
I don’t think it will affect the game at all, the problem for us is getting the ball close enough to the goal for the choice of keeper to have any effect! The biggest challenge for us will be to keep you from creating chances.
If you could choose one player from Arsenal and sign him for Brentford, who would that be?
That’s an easy one! I’d have David Raya back. He’s a brilliant keeper and we miss him and would love to have him back but we fully understand him going, as we would of course with Ivan Toney and, when the time comes, Bryan Mbeumo.
Which Brentford player has been the biggest positive surprise this season?
I would say Yehor Yarmolyuk, a Ukrainian midfielder who’s only 20 but has looked really good in his appearances. Other than that I’d say Neal Maupay who we didn’t expect much from when he returned to us but he’s scored eight goals and been pretty good.
And the biggest negative surprise?
Injuries, and the inability to cope with them. They all seem to be long term too, like the former Arsenal academy player Josh Dasilva – wonderful player but he did his hamstring early on in the season, came back and then did his cruciate in training. You simply can’t believe bad luck like that, and he’s just one of many examples.
Finally, what is your prediction for the game?
I hope I am wrong, but it could be 4-0 to Arsenal if they are on form and we defend as badly as we have recently. I guess it depends a bit on which Brentford turns up, on a bad day you could do to us what you did to Sheffield United on Monday but let’s see which Brentford turns up.Remember the game at the Emirates last season when we really should have won. Can lightning strike twice?
Greville Waterman is BU Commissioning Editor