To be fair, they should be competing for champions league football every year, they have 9th largest revenue in world football. Right manager ,some decent signing and there's no reason they shouldn't be competing for the top 4/5.Originally Posted by Eirambler
OK, so I might have to walk back this comment if they go and give the job to Keith Andrews!
Collins named as Brentford captain. There might only be about six Irish players in the Premier League this coming season, but half of them are club captains as things stand.
Hopefully for Brentford an Irish manager, an Irish captain and an Irish goalkeeper doesn't mean a relegation battle.
Pete O'Rourke reporting that Brentford are lining up Coventry City centre back Bobby Thomas as a potential Collins replacement, as they're expecting interest in Collins before the end of the transfer window.
I could of course be wrong, but I would be astonished if BFC sold NC this window. Maybe Thomas is being seen as a future replacement for 2026/27, say, so they want him in before then to get him accustomed to the set-up? Or might agree a season-long loan back to Coventry?
Anyhow I was at the Villa game on Saturday and NC was very accomplished, in keeping with the rest of the defence. While Kelleher had surprisingly little to do, bar one (excellent) reaction save with his foot from close range.
"Twenty two, twenty two, Nathan Collins,
Twenty two, twenty two, I say,
Twenty two, twenty two, Nathan Collins,
Playing football the Brentford way"
Brentford fans after five mins of yesterday's 2-2 draw at home to Chelsea.
First half, Chelsea dominated possession and territory, but BFC were quite happy to let them do so and hit them on the break - leading 1-0 at H-T was quite deserved.
Second half was very different - CFC made 3 substitutions after the break, some tactical tweaks and the BFC defence was suddenly stretched hard, after having been comfortable earlier.
With CFC able to bring on Cole Palmer after 55, then Garnacho after 79, it show you what quality they had, yet even after going behind 2-1 late on, they didn't panic and (just about) deserved their injury time equaliser (6 mins of injury time, after the worst case of faked "injury" by gk Sanchez I've seen since Carlos Valderama at Italia 90!).
Anyhow, NC was very solid, as was Pinnock alongside, with Van Den Berg the pick of the defence with a great display. Kelleher was excellent too, while Keith Andrews looks to have got his selection, tactics and substitutions spot on - that's now 3 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats for Bees against CFC since promotion to the PL.
Scores against Everton - Brentford 3-0 up now, and up to seventh in the league, which is a European spot.
Andrews may know what he's doing there after all.
As do all the rest of the people at that club, incl those whose job it is to identify, train and appoint a new Head Coach, whenever the time comes.
Interestingly, whenever a new Head Coach is to be recruited externally, he will be told that he can only bring one Assistant with him, after which they must work with the coaches who are already at the club. This ensures continuity and the maintenance of the "house style" throughout the club, right from Academy through to the First XI.
And when recruiting internally, then they already have knwledge of what he can do and v.v. Which is why people get misled by the fact that KA was "only" their Set Piece Coach. Fact is, knowing that Frank was going to go sooner or later, they'd had their eye on KA for some time as someone worth having at the club for possible future reference. So that when it looked as though he would be starting his first Manager's job at MK Dons, they spoke to him to see if he'd like to move to Brentford instead. At which point the only vacancy was for a SPC, the previous one having just left (for Arsenal?) i.e. coincidental.
Anyhow, they obviously both liked the look of each other, but even then, when Frank did leave, KA wasn't a "shoo-in" for the job, since he still had to pass the interview, in preference to two other external candidates.
So maybe it shouldn't have been such a surprise that he's slotted in so easily, even allowing for the fact that Frank then took a number of the Bees' backroom staff with him to Spurs.
Based on what I've read previously of how Brentford operate, what EG has posted there looks to be on the money. Being Brentford manager is quite a different role to being a manager at most clubs and the house style as mentioned is everything. It's great that he's a good fit and is doing well, but it shouldn't necessarily be taken from that that he'd automatically be a great manager at another club. It's more that he's a positive cog within a very well oiled machine at Brentford than that he's necessarily any kind of managerial genius in general.
Brentford are a very well run club but given the players they lost in the summer I felt they would struggle this season. Credit has to go to the club and to Andrews (who I was sceptical about - although I will say that when I met him he did come across as a very smart guy) - he may be just a cog in a well-oiled machine, but he is a very important cog.
Hands up too. I always felt he was more style than substance but there’s no denying what he’s achieved so far this season.
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