At the end of the 2023/24 season no less than seven players from the promotion winning team of three years previously, Rico Henry, Ethan Pinnock, the entire midfield of Vitaly Janelt, Christian Norgaard and Mathias Jensen as well as Bryan Mbeumo and Ivan Toney were still considered as first team regulars at Brentford and were all still more than worth their place in the team. It is rare indeed that a promotion winning team does not break up the squad that got them there and replace and hopefully upgrade them with new recruits – as has been the case this Summer at Ipswich Town who have conducted their own version of a supermarket trolley dash and it remains to be seen which approach is more successful.
That being said there were several issues that needed addressing by the Bees this Summer. They had suffered a tsunami of injuries that lasted throughout the season without respite and resulted in them playing without their first-choice fullbacks, Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry for pretty much the entire season. Mads Roerslev and loanee Sergio Reguilon had filled in adequately but the attacking pace and brio of the rampaging Hickey and Henry was so crucial to Brentford’s gameplan and had been much missed.
Would either full back return fit for the new season? There were high hopes of Rico doing so and he was soon seen training enthusiastically at Jersey Road, but an ominous silence about the status of Hickey who has not been seen since the end of October 2023 after suffering an horrendous hamstring injury and our fears were justified when the news broke last week that he had suffered a reoccurrence of his injury and was likely to miss most of the coming season. Sadly, Josh Dasilva was also expected to remain a long-term absentee following his knee ligament injury and subsequent operation.
Spare parts in Thomas Strakosha, Charlie Goode, Shandon Baptiste and Saman Ghoddos had departed at the end of the season with our thanks, and Ghoddos in particular had served us exceptionally well when we really needed him. Baptiste left as an enigma, so talented but so rarely fit, Goode had suffered cruelly from injury and illness and never got started and Strakosha never really challenged for a starting role and his leaving freed up a substantial slug of the budget.
Matthew Cox, Hakan Valdimarsson and new signing from US College soccer, Julian Eyestone, would back up Mark Flekken and also allow Ellery Balcombe to go out in search of first team football on loan at St Mirren.
Loanees Reguilon and Neal Maupay both left the club with our thanks and appreciation after jobs well done, but neither seemed to be cost-effective long-term options on a permanent basis.
Other fringe players left the club, Daniel Oyegoke was sold to Hearts after failing to make a breakthrough to the first team squad, promising winger Michael Olakigbe left for Wigan on loan where he immediately injured himself, Ben Winterbottom joined AFC Fylde on loan and Fin Stevens who had become a full Welsh international and helped Oxford United win promotion to the Championship surprisingly was allowed to join St Pauli for a substantial six-figure fee. What a great success story he is, as he has risen from Worthing to the Bundesliga in only four years.
Late on in the window, Zanka who had filled in almost 50 times as a central defender and never let us down was allowed to leave for Anderlecht where he can dine out on stories of his Messi-like (well it was certainly messy!) goal for the Bees at Villa Park last season. Tristan Crama of whom we still have high hopes, has joined Exeter City on a season’s loan and has already become a fans’ favourite and Myles Peart-Harris, coming into the crucial final season of his contract at the club, has been given the opportunity to prove himself in the Championship at Swansea.
Frank Onyeka too was allowed to join Augsburg on loan where he can hopefully play more regularly than he would at the Gtech and Phil Giles is confident that the likes of Yehor Yarmoliuk and Ryan Trevitt, and Paris Maghoma when fit will benefit from the opportunities provided them by Frank’s leaving – albeit temporarily.
The biggest conundrum for Phil Giles and Lee Dykes was how to deal with the elephant in the room in Ivan Toney. In a parallel universe he would have departed with hosannas and strewn with rose petals at the end of 2022/23 season in exchange for an eye-watering fee after scoring 20 goals that season however his gambling ban and subsequent fall-out put paid to that and with his contract expiring next year and with him unwilling to sign an extension, the Bees were always going to be on the back foot with the clock ticking and his age and the reluctance of major clubs to spend big also went against him.
Toney did his best to put himself in the shop window more than making the most of his opportunities at the European Championships with an assist and a trademark penalty kick conversion and how proud did it make all Brentford supporters feel to watch a Bee pull on an England shirt and take part in the Final of the Euros?
Brentford knew that Toney was likely to leave this Summer and made an early move to replace him by paying a club record £30million fee for Brazilian striker Igor Thiago from Club Brugge – one IT coming in ideally to replace another – and all looked as if it was all going according to plan with Thiago impressing and scoring twice in his first appearance for the club in a preseason friendly before succumbing to a serious meniscus injury which is likely to keep him out of action for much of the remainder of this year.
Thomas Frank understandably did not play Ivan Toney in any first team matches given all the transfer speculation and activity and finally, late on the evening of 30th August, the deal was done, Saudi club Al-Ahli decided to buy Toney for a club record £40 million fee after toying with the possibility of being in Victor Osimhen from Napoli instead.
The salary being offered Toney is boggling and he deserves the opportunity to look after his family given that he has yet to earn substantial sums from the game, but it is sad that he seemingly has no other options within the Premier League and his international career has also probably ended so soon after it began.
Whilst Thiago recovers Bryan Mbeumo and Wissa, supported by Kevon Schade will form a pacy and dangerous forward line with Keane Lewis-Potter supporting them out wide.
After a serious dalliance with Archie Gray where the Leeds starlet so nearly joined the Bees in what would have been an eye-opening transfer had it come off and a thwarted attempt to loan in box-to-box midfielder Jens Cajuste from Napoli all came right in the final weeks of the Transfer Window when four high quality young talented players arrived at the club to general acclaim.
Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg arrived from Liverpool for well over £40 million between them. Young, talented, versatile players of good pedigree who would surely improve the squad Carvalho can play across the front three or as a Number 10 and van den Berg is a right sided centre half who can also play at full back, something that will be needed in the absence of Hickey.
Two young prospects also arrived in 18-year-old wunderkind Gustavo Nunes – a right winger of rich potential and very little experience and left back Jayden Meghoma, a young international left back from Southampton who will understudy Rico Henry.
The key objective of Phil Giles is to leave the squad stronger at the end of every Transfer Window and he has certainly come up trumps and succeeded in his endeavours.
Beyond signing a specialist right back it would be difficult to improve on what has been achieved and we have three players who can fill in there.
We now have a squad that is stronger, more versatile, far younger and with more potential than in previous years and possess a plethora of young talent in the likes of Valdimarsson, Meghoma, Arthur, Frederick, Kim, van den Berg, Carvalho, Konak, Yarmoliuk, Trevitt, Damsgaard, Thiago, Lewis-Potter, Schade and Nunes. Not all, but many of them will go onto massive careers, ideally at Brentford.
It remains to be seen if this Summer’s Transfer Window ends up as successful as the legendary one of 2019 but the auspices are extremely favourable. We are in good hands and have a squad to be envied.