Season Preview 20in20 - Brentford

19 of 20 - The Bees

Author

nick lochner
August 13, 2023

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2022/23 Finish - 9th Place

A Small/Medium sized London Club who moved to The Championship in 2014, their first time back to the second division since the 1950s. Fast forward to 2021 with a promotion to the PL and surprising results in the league with a 13th and 9th place finish. Brentford has traditionally been a club to buy players low and sell high, often getting rid of their best players. This offseason seems to be a shift from that approach, having sold $8M worth of players and buying $75M. The Bees will need to find scoring as Ivan Toney has been suspended until January for breaking betting rules. Toney had 20 goals through the first 33 games last season. What is the next goal for Brentford? A run at a Europe competition? To stay up in the PL? To look for profit opportunities by selling high value players? Mid table would be a great achievement in their 3rd ever season in the PL.

The Club

Located in Brentford (West London)

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

Rough estimates

$160M Annual Revenue

$60M Player Payroll

History on the Pitch

  • Highest finish, 9th in 2023

  • 0 FA Cups

  • 0 Europe Cups

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.

Sponsorship

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 25W 23L 17D.

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 - they 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)

The Team

The Gaffer

  • Thomas Frank (Denmark), 49yo

  • 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 +40,000

  • To Be Relegated +900

  • To Finish Top 4 +4,000

  • To Finish Top 10 +250

Roster Notes

Full Roster click link

Projected to finish 11th

  • No Americans on the roster

  • Christian Norgaard, Captain, Midfield, Denmark, 29yo.

  • $75M in acquisitions, a big step up for The Bees.

  • Ivan Toney, the top paid player for The Bees who had 20 goals last season is suspended until January for breaking betting rules.

Gtech Community Stadium

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