24/25 Season Preview 20 in 20 - Brentford

3 of 20 - The Bees

Author

nick lochner
July 28, 2024

The 2024/25 Season kicks off Friday August 16 when Fulham travel to Man United.

For previous team previews and additional content check out our website: CleanSheetEPL.beehiiv.com.

AND….

Know someone who would like to follow the CleanSheet? SHARE this link! Subscribe | CleanSheetEPL (beehiiv.com).

Brentford

2023/24 Finish - 16th Place

Expectations Management. Brentford is not a big club, and while they reside in West London, they are relatively small. The Club was not a “top division” level club since the 1930’s but made its way to The Championship (Level 2) in 2014, stuck there for 7 consecutive seasons until making it to the Premier League in 2021 and surprising everyone by staying up for a fourth consecutive time. A ninth-place finish in 2023 shifted expectations up making last season’s 16th place finish a disappointment. Heading into last season Brentford sold JUST $8M worth of players and BOUGHT $75M. That was a shift in approach, but the results were not there. What would be a good season for the Bee’s? Truly it would be avoiding relegation, but fans may want to challenge for the top 10.

Toney. Toney. Toney. Ivan Toney is the real deal and Brentford really missed him for the first half of last season when he was suspended for gambling violations. Indications are he will be sticking with the club this season and finish out the last year on his contract. That would go a long way to securing a fifth straight season in the PL.

Frankly. What Thomas Frank has done with Brentford has been amazing, leading the team to promotion and sticking in the PL. What is more impressive is his fit with ownership. As you will see below, Brentford is a “moneyball” style team - leaning heavily on data analytics for young players, buying low and selling high. There have been clubs interested in hiring Frank away from Brentford, but so far, he has stuck with the Club. Frank’s contract runs thru 2027, will be interesting to see what happens with managerial movement early on in the season. It’s possible if one of the big clubs wants to change managers Frank could be on the short list as a replacement.

Relegation or Top 10. Both seem equally likely for the Bee’s. Could be a really fun team to watch if Toney runs wild, new faces like Igor Thiago open things up and Thomas Frank finds his managing form and is there for the full campaign.

The Club

Located in Brentford (West London)

Brentford Community Stadium aka Gtech Community Stadium, 17,000 capacity

Rough estimates

$215M Annual Revenue (not top 50 in world)

$50M Player Payroll

History on the Pitch

  • Highest finish, 9th in 2023

  • 0 FA Cups

  • 0 Europe Cups

Sponsorship

Home Kit

Away Kit

Third Kit

Ownership

Matthew Benham is a finance executive turned gambling analytics startup entrepreneur. Benham was hired by Tony Bloom, BHA owner, to work at Premier Bet. Benham made a significant sum of money in the Asian betting market, using a statistical model developed by Stuart Coles and Mark Dixon at Lancaster University, which was able to predict the probabilities of football scores more accurately than the bookies. He had a falling out with Bloom and started Smartodds in 2004 and then Matchbook in 2011. In 2005 his favorite club was struggling financially, and he became a mystery investor to bail them out. In 2012 he became full owner.

Biggest Rival - Fulham
West London Derby

  • West Lond Derby is any match between 2 of 4 teams - Brentford, Fulham, QPR, Chelsea.

  • Unlike other Derby’s this one has suffered from the clubs often being in different divisions.

  • Fans would say Fulham is the biggest rival and that has shown up with fan violence on occasion.

  • Brentford record against Fulham is 26W 23L 18D.

The Culture

Community. In a survey conducted by BIAS, Brentford received the highest matchday fan experience rating for both the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons. Factors noted are family-friendliness, cleanliness, quality of the staff, the fans ability to impact club decisions, community involvement. So, if you value the best chants with the most swear words in your experience, you may not align to BIAS’ criteria.

The Bees are a London club owned by 1 lifelong fan who, when building the current stadium in 2020, said a priority was to make sure the commercial department did not “fleece the fans”, and keeping pricing affordable.

Brentford fans are pretty traditional and have ties to West London - that may be a result of being in level 3 and 4 for most of the last 70 years. Casual fans of English soccer may have never heard of Brentford prior to 3 years ago.

Moneyball aka Data Nerds

In 2015, the Bees made wholesale changes focused on running the club based on mathematical models. They hired 2 co-directors of soccer, former analytics experts. They club began identifying and buying undervalued talent with high potential, then selling the player for significant profit. There was a constant rotation of the “best players” on the team. 

Should be noted, the club does not like the term moneyball.

Supporters You May Recognize

  • Cameron Diaz

  • Jim Carrey

  • Phil Collins

  • The list is shorter than some London clubs given the lack of play in the top 2 levels for 70 years.

Song

Said to be a symbol of unity, during the 1960s fans were looking for freedom and unity. Paul McCartney wrote the song for John Lennon’s son during his parents divorce. A message of reassurance and support. Through thick and thin.

Sung before each match, the anthem fits with the community culture of Brentford, in Community Stadium.

Game Day Pub Guide

Fan Sites

Official Twitter

@BrentfordFC

High Follows on Twitter

@bfcgpg (13k) (Griffin Park Grapevine)

@Beesotted (17k)

@Brentford_FL (8k)

@BrentfordUSA (2k)

@BrentEssential (4k)

@BrentfordFCCST (5K)

The Team

The Gaffer

  • Thomas Frank (Denmark), 50yo

  • Frank took over in 2018 after being on staff since 2016. Has a great relationship with players across all levels and is known for his “moneyball approach”.

  • Led the team to promotion into the PL in 2022 and achieved their highest ever finish at 9th.

ODDS

  • To Win League +100,000

  • To Be Relegated +450

  • To Finish Top 4 +10,000

  • To Finish Top 10 +300

Roster Notes

Full Roster click link

Projected to finish 16th

Americans on the team (as of July 27)

  • No USA players on the team

Interested in playing Fantasy Soccer? Here are the basics. Typical teams have a budget of $100M and 15 players - $6.7M per player.

  • Ivan Toney (FWD) – $7.5m

  • Igor Thiago (FWD) – $6.0m

  • Yoane Wissa (FWD) – £6.0m

  • Kevin Schade (MID) – £5.5m

  • Ben Mee (DEF) – £4.5m

Goalkeeper

  • Mark Flekken - Is not considered a top 15 keeper at this point.

Gtech Community Stadium

Reply

or to participate.