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A SWARM OF BEES - BRENTFORD FC

Started on 4 May 2020 by OneMoreGame
Latest Reply on 24 August 2020 by TheLFCFan
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A Swarm Of Bees - Chasing Talents (EP 25)


Deals, deals, deals.


After the successful campaign last year we were determined to be even better this season and attack more seriously the spots giving us European football. We have already packed squad and the arrivals before the last season's end made it hard to find place for all the players. The club wanted this strategy, however we may soon need an U23 team in the league and even win this league as our reserves are playing in some of the Europe best leagues.

A lot of Chinese teams again overflowed us with offers for our players, but this time were not for the players that we want to let go. We rejected some serious offers for Benrahma & Pontus Jonnsen. Both for around €25M.

At the end of the summer we were attacked from Premier League sides again for our best players, rejected €30M for Ollie Watkins and another €25M for Benrahma.

The Departures


Clearly we need to get rid off some players. The first ones that I wanted out of team were in fact my first signing back in the winter of my first season here as I didn't expect that the quality of the team to be this good. The club bright vision for the transfer policy is just one - SELL PLAYERS FOR MORE THAT HE IS BOUGHT.


Niclas Eliasson (AML) joined us for €2.8M from Bristol City and will leave the team for the exact same price with the 20% bonus from the next transfer in his career. The winger joins Independiente Santa Fe and won't be remembered with anything special in his stay with us playing 19 games and scoring 2 goals.


Sean Reggett (DC) is another player departing without leaving any mark in the team. Joined from Portsmouth for just €500k., now he leaves for Toronto FC for €1M. He made only 3 appearances for us and it's not needed by the club.


Adam Andersson (RB) actually was going to receive another chance with us after the failed last season, but Barnsley came up with a offer and with the funds we had, it was the right thing to do to go for another right back this season.. We wanted the same player as Mads Roerslev after we lost him, but although Andersson get a lot of chances - he never met the expectations. We get €1.4M which is with 400k more than the price we paid for him.


I really wanted the things to have worked out with Simon Tibbling (MC) but when Lille came with €6M offer for him I could not reject it. He had some good matches with us, however he only played in one half of the season and purely we made €4.2M profit from him (as he was bought for €1.8M). Nice to see him in a good team.


Our midfield was too packed and we needed to sell someone. Christian Norgaard (DM, MC) was that someone. €6.25M and he is now player of Genoa. He contributed enormously in our season in Championship, but last year he faded away from the starting XI, also was injured for a long time. Great servant, just his time came. (He was bought for €4.1)


Julian Jeanvier (DC) was another player that was in the team before my arrival and didn't have a single bad game under my coaching. Great player in both Championship and Premiership but he wanted more playing time that I could give him. We also had some troubles with him last season when he tried something like a riot against me in the lockerroom. Really good defender, even averaged 7.45 rating in our first season, scoring 3 goals. Sad to see him go but we have great depth at centre back so we won't notice his absence. €9.5M from Huddersfield (bought for only €2M).

We also continued the tradition of letting our young starlets on loan to get first team experience.


The most notable players that won't be around the team are Marcus Forss & Toni Moya at Maritimo, Francisco Sierralta at Kobenhavn, Hussayn Touati at AIK.

A lot of all these talents have great future and probably will have a chance in our team.


The Arrivals


Our budget for the upcoming season was something else - €50M. That is something else for a club that his best signing was €13M (Alexander Isak). However I really want to follow MY WAY in the transfers, don't buy pricey old players and develop young prospects by giving them first team football. We get another €27M from the players that we sold so we are fockin` rich at the moment.

We also have 3 players coming into the first team arranged earlier - Youssef Bennasser (€3.2M from Monaco), Jesus Vallejo (free from Real Madrid) and Andrew Gravillon (free from Inter).

So I searched only for deals that we NEED to do, to get more depth or to strengthen some area. And the end of the transfer window we might have more money than we originally had.


The right wingback is one of the places we need to improve. Although we found a good replacement in the face of Oskar Buur, we need another good player on that position. With the departure of Adam Andersson we again looked at our lovely Scandinavia for a quality option. FELIX BEIJMO (RB) is our choice. The Swedish international comes from Werder Bremen for the price of €4.2M.

Hopefully he can finally fill the gap left by Mads Roerslev, I was even thinking for bringing him back but Venlo already had bought him from the relegated Hertha.


Manchester City youngster Patrick Roberts (AMR) is the next guy we really wanted in our squad. Bringing him for €7.25M with the intentions for a lengthy career in our squad. After the weak period at the end of the season was important to boost our attacking options and the Englishman will look to revive his career after playing ....


I was looking at this transfer from the first day I came in Brentford FC.One of Croatia brightest talents finally is in our squad, after 2 failed attempts in the past (because of the high price demands). "The Balkan Messi" LOVRO MAJER (AMC) is coming from Dinamo Zagreb for €9.75M and will be key to our transformation into a 4-2-3-1 side.

He also can play at the CM position, can take our corners, score free kicks. He can do whatever he wants! Great player, expecting miracles from him!


Our final addition to the squad is the French wonderkid AMINE GOURI (ST) coming from Lyon for €8.5M. We needed to have another quality striker added to the team after last season goal drought for our front players. In fact if he performs well, quickly can guarantee a spot in the starting XI because of Isak poor form. Win - win situation for me, having 3 wonderful strikers battling for the spot of the main man upfront.

Alfa Semedo is back from his loan spell and again will play for the club.

Overall


At the end of the day we spent only €3M more than the sum of the player we sold, which is great. All the other money are free to be spent if we want (but we don't). We didn't even break the record for record signing and still have perfectly balanced squad to battle in the next season.

All of our younger players got their loan deals, playing somewhere that they can be every match in the starting eleven and develop. We will start gathering the fruit of our work from the winter or the next season when some of this players will have their chance in our first team. We don't have a youth intake - however we have the best youngsters!

Also our squad is very young - only Pontus Jonsson is older than 30, two players are 28 aand mainly the other players are around 23-25 years old which gives another dimension to the future of this football club.



Our preseason went really well both in the camp in the USA and in England where we faced lower tier clubs and Sheffield United in our final game before the start of the season. All of the players had nice start of the long season. Mbeumo and Guiri performed really well and scored 4 goals each. Andrew Gravillon also scored 4, a hattrick against Yeovil.

Jesus Vallejo missed almost all of the matches and it's behind with his physical condition, Jeong Woo is injured for two months, missed the pre-season and will miss August games for sure.

The schedule wasn't on our side again in the beginning of the new PL season.

Liverpool (A) - opening away match against the champions.
Brighton (H)
Leicester (A)
Millwall (A) - EFL Cup
Wolves (H)


Thanks for reading & hope you enjoy it!

-


COMMENTS:

ScottT - We tend to start well and loose focus down the road in the league and also in the matches.

TheLFCFan - Hopefully both of them will be a lot better this season and pass the 10 goal mark. Also with our new additions, plenty of options are available.

Tango - Actually I finished my first season before your I think, doesn't matter. Always tracking down how the leagues develop, it's fun for me.

MidKnightDreary - Welcome on board!

Jack - Still the beast from the first season, tearing attackers, scoring goals, making mistakes, making penalties. I wonder why I didn't accept the offers for him (both over 25M.) :D
For the price of some of the sales, it looks like the team has brought several players they never needed in the first place
Some very exciting arrivals there, with Gouri and Majer being the two stars of the group I'd say. Some good business done all round and I am excited to see how the season goes despite that tough start.
I think the team are in a stronger position than they were last time. Looking forward to what this season brings.

A Swarm Of Bees - Fresh Start (EP 26)


Our second campaign in the PL begins.


Starting our second season in the Premier League with the hopes of reaching Europe at the end of the season, but yet again the odds are that we will struggle for survival. We are predicted to finish 17th. We also should guard ourselves against the so-called "dangerous" 2nd season in the top flight as many newly promoted teams do well in the first season, but then stumble in the second.

We won't be able to use Jeong Woo-Yeong & Jesus Vallejo in the first month as the first is injured and the second one returned from injury between our 1st and 2nd matches.

Liverpool vs. Brentford



It's always hard to start the league well, but our task was even harder going on a trip to "Anfield" against the current champions. Even though they sold Salah (to Barcelona) & Van Dijk (to PSG) they went to spend the whooping €386M this transfer window and their squad is tremendous. Great effort by the guys, we gave all that we had. Neres scored in just 15 minutes but we made it hard for the champs.  In the 68' Raya once again stopped a penalty against this opponent  (last August's 1-1 draw against them). To make things worse Alfa Semedo was sent off just a minute (and will miss next 3 games) after the penalty was saved (again in the draw 1-1 he made the penalty). Until the end we throw our bodies to defend our goal. The efforts were great, but we start the campaign with a loss.

After the game we receive bad news from our medicals - Shandon Baptiste will miss the rest of the month after a collision with an opponent in the match.

Brentford vs. Brighton



The first match at our home stadium for the season against the team that we last played last season. We are switching between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 for the different matches. We dominated the game and were in front almost the whole time after brilliant goal by our new pearl Lovro Majer who also won POTM. Although we controlled the match in the end were nervous and we were pushed to the limit. Our brave defenders get the job done - clean sheet, a win and 3 points!

Rico Henry got his place back in the starting line-up after he spent the last half of the season benched and returned with an assist.

Leicester vs. Brentford



It seems that Leicester poor form from last season is still hunting them, I don't know who, because they have such good players. We start on the highest gear and we are 1-0 up in the 1' thanks to Benrahma! After they get one back, we again started pushing and just after the half time Ollie Watkins grabbed his second goal for the game (POTM performance)! The match was very open and the goals could have been even more. Dasilva bangs one in the end, and our new boy Patrick Roberts gets 2 assist on his name. Rico Henry & Mathias Jensen get one each also.

As we had a packed midfield with the dismissal of Ben Pearson for absurd foul, now we have just a couple of available players in the midfield, gratefully next match is in EFL Cup.


Millwall vs. Brentford



This year I will try a little bit harder in the cups even though we changed 10 out of 11 players from the previous match. We faced the team that was bottom of Championship and gave debuts to all our new players. Millwall got the first goal, but we turned the things around really quickly. Young Dominic Thompson just refuses to let his spot at the left back as he scores one of his bangers! Two debut goals by Flynn Downes & Bennasser get us the win! Bennasser also got one assist and played perfectly to win the POTM award. 

Bryan Mbeumo who got really good pre-season, but didn't perform well in the first PL matches got 2 assists.

The draw put us in good position as we are going to face Luton Town (which we beat last year 3-1 in the same tournament)

Brentford vs. Wolves



Phenomenal performance against really good side. I'm really proud that we kick our opponents teeth with the same players we did it in Championship! Ollie Watkins gave us the lead after beautiful pass from Chirivella! All of the players were great in this match and we didn't gave the opportunity to our enemy even to threaten us! Said Benrahma brace gave us the security in the end and the Algerian won POTM. It's vital that one of our new signings - Beijmo got his first assist.

Fun Fact: Tottenham just slapped the fuck out of West Ham beating them 10-0. What's that with these results?

Player of the Month




OLLIE WATKINS

After the awful end of last season, Ollie Watkins comes back with a bang! Scored 3 goals and showed why he is still trusted to start upfront no matter his weak performances in the spring! He also is the first player to win Player of the Month award in all of our 3 seasons so far! Hopefully this time he won't sleep through the half of the season and will terrorize the defenders!

Said Benrahma also was perfect this month, scoring 3 goals and troubling the opposition defense. Rico Henry, Pattrick Roberts & Bryan Mbeumo each ends the month with two assists!

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT



Close to a perfect month we end the month we 4 wins (1 in EFL Cup) and only 1 defeat (to the current champions Liverpool). Really proud of the boys and the way that we play at the moment. It's important to maintain such form through the whole season and don't feel safe after a few good months. We're 7th, with a lot of good performing teams ahead of us, but this is only the beginning.

Chelsea, Liverpool & Manchester City are with perfect form in the right end of the table, Leicester & Bournemouth are without single point at the other.

Next month will be a tricky one with games against Chelsea, Arsenal, Sheffield United and the Cup match against Luton Town.

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

-


COMMENTS:

Tango - Some of our first signings weren't the needed quality (Eliasson, Reggett), others just did perform well, but yeah you're right about a couple of them.

TheLFCFan - I say that Majer will be the star in the selection as Gouri will have to wait for a regular spot in the main squad.

ScottT - I also think so, but everything can happen and we might end up in the relegation battle.
A good start. Glad to see Watkins is back in form to begin the new season.
An absolutely scorching start for the season from you, Benrahma and Watkins. Here's hoping that it's maintainable!
Well last years scoring troubles don't seem to be present this season. Great start to the season, with some of the new boys impressing early on.
Well last years scoring troubles don't seem to be present this season. Great start to the season, with some of the new boys impressing early on.
Wonder how many years it will take to get in a steady spot 1-6 position, good performance!

A Swarm Of Bees - Autumn of Hopes (EP 27)



We started the season really well in August and we lost only against the current champions from Mersyside. We beat 3 teams (Brighton, Leicester, Wolves), get 9 points and also get into the next phase of the EFL Cup. The spirit in the squad is high and everybody wants the team to continue with the great results. The boys want to achieve big things and are giving 100% every time they get a chance on the pitch! 

Jeong Woo-Yeong will be available only in the end of the month and Shandon Baptiste is close to returning after the injury last month.


Chelsea vs. Brentford



After we eliminated them in the FA Cup two seasons ago, Chelsea have become our boogie team. We just can't cope with them (two 3-0 losses last season), now this. Also for me they have the best team currently in the PL. Pontus Jansson made it sure that we lose, first he made a penalty, then just 3 minutes after he lost the ball when was the last man before our goal, terrible performance. Isak get our hopes back after good pass from Beijmo, but that was everything that we offered. Sancho & Martinez buried us, slamming five goals in our net. We need to forget this result fast!

Chelsea & Manchester City continue to have 100%  record after the first five games.

Brentford vs. Arsenal



WHAT A GAME! Attacks from the start till the end! We get upfront two times by beautiful solo goals by Watkins & Roberts! Both times our players started their dribbling in our half, absolute amazing! The visitors also threaten our goal and Lacazette scores two long distance goals to even the game! Both teams doesn't stop with their attacking intents and the score is open, anyone can win it! Phenomenal pass by Patrick Roberts (POTM) is finished perfectly by Alexander Isak in the 87' to give our supporters adrenaline rush! Great win against one of our direct rivals!

Patrick Roberts absolutely bossed the game!

Luton Town vs. Brentford



Again we gave the chance to our reserves to show me what they can and they provided the needed narrow win. Oskar Buur was brought down and Gouiri scored his first goal for the team! After the break our dominance continued and Ethan Pinnock grabbed one more goal and also the Player of the Match award! Until the end of the game we had a lot of other chances but their keeper had great day. Jeong Woo finally returned, Shandon Baptiste also played his first match after the injury!

Unfortunately after his great game Ethan Pinnock is injured for a month!

This time we get a home match in the next round but it will be against PL's Everton!

Brentford vs. Sheffield United



We played the Blades as our final opponent in the pre-season and won pretty easy, this time the match wasn't so easy. Patrick Roberts again dominated the game scored a goal after he stole the ball from one of the defenders and opened up the scoreline. Ollie Watkins continued his good form after an excellent cross from Oskar Buur! After the half time we seemed to forget that we should not loose focus, we slept through it and almost paid the price as our opponents pushed our team. Only the good performance by our defenders & goalkeeper saved the three points for us. 

Really unlucky as Shandon Baptiste just returned from injury and now he is back in the medical center for another 3 weeks.

Player of the Month





PATRICK ROBERTS

The new signing Patrick Roberts just started his career at Brentford FC but had such a great month! The young winger got 2 goals, 1 assist and 2 POTM performances in the 2 matches that he played (he didn't make the squad against Chelsea). We were searching for such winger and as for now - we got him! Terrific performance!

Ollie Watkins continued his good form, Alexander Isak scored twice and our whole attack is looking sharper than ever!

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT



We climb the table by just one place to 6th, however this happens after really tough month (playing 2 of the top 6 teams). We continue to be very close to the desired place (CL, EL) and overall the month was success! We reach the 4th round of EFL Cup for the first time from the time I'm manager here. Our attack looks scary for all our opponents, but need to perform better against the top teams.

It's really close at the top, Manchester City are first, but it's still early for any team to get some gap  at the top. It's really interesting that Leicester still don't have a single point, Wolves also struggling!

We have 5 matches next month - West Ham (A), Bournemouth (H), Man City (A), Blackburn (A) and the 4th round of the EFL Cup against Everton!

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

-


COMMENTS:

ScottT - I'm very happy for him, he continued with the good games this month too.

Jack - Hopefully our attackers don't forget how to score again this year.

TheLFCFan - The new boys are superb for now, maybe expecting something more from Majer, but there is a lot of games to be played.

Wolf - My goal is this year, our first season we almost broke through, so we will penetrate this top six with all our power :D
A great response to losing against Chelsea. Exactly the mentality you ought to see from a team with the ambitions you have this season.
Quite an embarrassing loss to Chelsea but with the points gap now between as a consequence of your other results, there' no room for laughing on their part!
Despite the Chelsea game, a great effort so far this season. Roberts is really proving a great signing and Isak looks to have settled into being a Premier League level striker! Great start once again, now we need to see it throughout the whole season.

A Swarm Of Bees - Flying Through Clouds (EP 28)



Brentford FC continued his quest of searching for better position in the league. We are sitting in the 6th place after 7 games, also we are still in the EFL Cup. Some of our players are in great form as Ollie Watkins, Patrick Roberts, Said Benrahma and Alexander Isak are tearing opponents defenders. 

The Bees have some minor troubles with injuries as Ethan Pinnock will miss the whole month and Shandon Baptiste will miss almost all of the games.

The first match see us facing one of the teams that we didn't manage to beat in our first season in PL.

West Ham vs. Brentford



Close game against local rival. After some misses by both teams we finally open up the score after the half time. The hero yet again (as in the win against Arsenal) is coming from the bench and his name is Alexander Isak! Another goal by the Swedish international and Player of the Match award after great pass by Josh Dasilva. In the final defending minutes of the game Chirivella is sent off. Great win against tough team to beat and another great performance by our defense.

After the dismissal of Chirivella, another bad news comes as he is diagnosed with fractured lower leg and will be out for 3 months, AWFUL NEWS as he is one of our vital players.

FUN FACT: After just 8 games of this season we are given 3 red cards - which is same as the amount of red cards we received in the PAST TWO SEASONS. Strange stuff.

Brentford vs. Bournemouth



Terrific performance by the whole team in another home victory for the Bees! Our attackers continue to impress as Said Benrahma got 2 goals (POTM), and Alexander Isak with 1.  Our defenders also played great part in our win as didn't allow any chances in front of our goal. Also Jesus Vallejo & Felix Beijmo each gets one assists. The cherries get their consolation goal in the final minutes as we fail to get second straight clean sheet.

Thilo Kehrer is injured for the next two weeks, so he won't play anymore in October.

After this will we broke into the top 4 for the first time in our history!

Manchester United vs. Brentford



Unfortunately we lose heavily against the Red Devils, but the scoreline is nothing close to the actual game. They got one goal after a pin-ball situation in our own box after a corner and then the two goals by Bruno Fernandes are scored from free-kicks. Three set piece goals. We had our chances but were unable to materialize them. It's interesting that we don't lose a lot, but when we do it's with a lot of goals scored in our net.

Next up is the 4th round of the EFL Cup against Everton!

Brentford vs. Everton



Again we gave chances to the player that are not so involved in our team, however some of our most important played also because we want to advance and want to win. Clean sheet and good match for our defenders, but for second match in a row we could not score. Everton were the better team overall, but were denied access to our goal by Fruchtl! Everything will be decided by penalties!

Gouri - goal / Richarlison - goal 
Bennasser - miss  / Zobnin - goal 
Perez - miss / Kean - goal
Gravillon - miss

We are out of the competition after we loose on pens with only 1 scored, not mad about it, yet we could have advanced.

Blackburn vs. Brentford



F`N ridiculous! This is just one of THOSE matches. This match could have ended 0-5 at least, but we end up on the loosing side, don't know how, really. We hit the woodwork 4 (FOUR) times and 2 times our goals are overrulled by VAR. When we went down in the score - everything was clear to me, we will lose this game no matter what and I'm not mad at the players, most of them played really well in the match, just the luck was against us. Mathias Jensen even wins the POTM.

Player of the Month




ALEXANDER ISAK

Finally our Swedish star wins the Player of the Month award after Alexander Isak scored 2 goals in October and overall is performing really well from the beginning of the new season (scored 4 from the start)! I really hope that this season he will be key for our success. We will try to kick negotiations for a new contract with him as he has €33M release clause now and we want to get rid of it.

Said Benrahma again just misses the award by little after his is also close to perfect season for now! He also scored 2 goals in the month.

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT



Even after the ugly defeat in the last match we manage to get another step in the right direction and we finish the month in the 5th place! However the gap between us and the top 4 is starting to get bigger.  We must try to hold our momentum and continue with the good performances and not end up in a swamp as last year and lose our spot in the final months.

The four teams at the top are really close to each other and it's still early to decide who is going to win it. At the other half of the table the newcomers Blackburn and Sheffield are in danger and Leicester are 11 games WITHOUT A POINT! What a season for them, finally fired Neil Lennon.

Next month will be very important for us because we have 4 matches - 3 of which are at home - Crystal Palace (H), Southampton (A), Watford (H), Tottenham (H).

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

-


COMMENTS:

ScottT - Yes, we tend to respond well after heavy defeats (not the case in this episode though)

Jack - Maybe the team I "hate" in this story the most, whatever I do they just beat the shit out of us, however look who is behind us now in the table :P

TheLFCFan - This is our mission, to maintain our good form in all 9 months of the season, tough task.

You are reading "A SWARM OF BEES - BRENTFORD FC".

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