The audit: Brentford

On-pitch performance

An implosion was predicted by some analysts when Brentford sold Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Christian Nørgaard over the summer transfer window, but some exceptional recruitment has maintained squad strength and spirit.

An intriguing ex-Liverpool core of Jordan Henderson, Caoimhin Kelleher, Sepp van den Berg and Fábio Carvalho (though he may not stick around) is augmented by record signing Dango Ouattara (£42m), and Michael Kayode, another clever buy, from Fiorentina. The Brazilian striker Igor Thiago has been a hit this season after serious injury affected him immediately after he joined for £30m last term. Kevin Schade feeds off the accurate counter-attacking passes of Henderson and Mikkel Damsgaard.

New head coach Keith Andrews likes to talk about “individual brilliance” in his side, but physicality, directness and yes, Kayode’s long throws, have been the main calling cards in home wins over Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa. At this early point, the Bees are buzzing.

Money

Now earning 11 times as much as the £15m they generated in their last Championship season, Brentford had a club-record turnover of just under £170m in 2023-24: the stuff of dreams, even if Manchester City generated £715m in that period. They were 19th in the wages league but in the top 10 for their wages-to-income ratio (source: Swiss Ramble).

Excellent recruiting and big-money sales allow them to reinvest and spend well. Mbeumo, Nørgaard and Wissa fetched around £120m this summer.

Fan satisfaction

At Grimsby in the Carabao Cup in midweek the home fans teased Brentford’s roughly 1,200 supporters with chants of “Where were you when you were shit?”

The away end responded: “We were here when we were shit.” And they were. Andrews made reference to it before the game: “Sixteen years ago this was a league fixture.” Brentford won 1-0 at Blundell Park in 2009 in a League Two match.

Grimsby’s fans applauded the riposte from their visitors, who were treated to a pint and a packet of crisps by their club for making the long trip.

Small by Premier League standards, but with a strong family feel, Brentford’s audience has seen ­football at every level and is never less than appreciative of where they are now.

Products and prospects

According to the CIES Football Observatory, Brentford, along with Wolves, gave no Premier League minutes to home-grown players last season. Liverpool were top with only 16.6% of minutes played, so it wasn’t a high bar.

CIES defined “home-grown” as having played for the club for at least three seasons between the ages of 15 and 21. Brentford reopened their academy only recently, in 2022-23, with restored under-nine to under-16 age groups. Stephen Torpey’s departure to Manchester United has left an academy director vacancy while they await Category One status.

They do buy young. Yehor Yarmoliuk was acquired from Dnipro in Ukraine at 18 and worked his way along the favoured B-team route.

The acquisitions have been exceptional, from Ivan Toney to Ollie Watkins, Saïd Benrahma, David Raya, Wissa and Mbeumo. The policy is to recruit in “16 positions” to cover every role a player might be asked to fill in any tactical shape.

They have become a set-piece academy too – for other clubs. Nicolas Jover (Arsenal) and Andreas Georgson (Tottenham) moved to bigger operations. Andrews held the role of set-piece coach before being promoted.

Ownership

Matthew Benham was part of a supporters’ trust before taking full control in 2012. Within nine years they rose from League One to Premier League, after 74 years outside the top flight.

From “a completely non-football”, cricket family, Benham made his money in statistical research for gamblers, via his firm Smartodds, and teamed up with Brighton’s Tony Bloom before they fell out.

Among the candidates to replace Thomas Frank when he moved to Spurs were Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna and the former Ajax head coach Francesco Farioli, but Benham went for the continuity candidate. Frank had been Dean Smith’s No 2 and Andrews was Frank’s set-piece coach and general assistant.

Understandably you hear few fans moan about Benham.

Women’s team

An amateur side flying high in the fifth-tier London & South East Regional Women’s Premier – with eight wins from eight and 23 goals – but playing against Barking, Saltdean and Newhaven is a long way from the Women’s Super League.

Home games are at the Bedfont Recreation Ground (3,000 capacity) or Wheatsheaf Park in Staines. The Gtech Stadium hosts one or two women’s fixtures a season to “showcase” the side.

Last season they ran away with the next division down, winning 21 of their 22 matches and scoring 131 times. In August, Carly Williams was appointed as head coach from Arsenal. Under Williams, they won their first 10 games in all competitions.

History

The honours board says everything about the trajectory. Their biggest piece of silverware has been the Second Division title in 1935, though they have been FA Cup quarter-­finalists and reached a League Cup semi-final four years ago.

Brentford have beaten every Premier League opponent at least once except Sunderland – surely their biggest boast. And in season two of Ted Lasso, they were mentioned as AFC Richmond’s derby rival.

Club facilities

Realism determined the Gtech Community Stadium’s capacity of 17,250. The club knew they would struggle to fill a bigger ground. But it’s a pleasing place to visit: an example of what estate agents call “modern living”, with a techy feel and smart new flats packed around it.

Squeezed between a triangle of railway lines near Kew Bridge, the ground opened in 2020 and is ideally placed for Heathrow, should the Bees ever make it to Europe. It was used as a women’s Euro 2022 venue and rugby club London Irish played there before going bust.

In May last year, the club began expanding their Osterley training complex with seven outdoor pitches and a new building to raise their academy status.

Griffin Park, the club’s home for 116 years, was famous for its pre-match pub crawl between four adjacent hostelries.

Atmosphere

Intimate and friendly, with Peter Gilham still the stadium announcer after more than 55 years and 1,500 matches, and the sports psychologist, Michael Caulfield, a cult figure, along with his dog Paisley.

Caulfield converses with players on “Michael’s bench” and encourages walking and talking to maintain mental health. The club are installing similar benches in local parks and supporters tell him they have followed his advice to take walks and talk to family and friends.

Photograph by Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images