The Brentford roster is looking quite different just a week before their first pre-season friendly , and yet more changes are rumoured.
Wissa is still in the red and white stripes but is reportedly being eyed by Tottenham. Mbeumo’s courtship with Manchester United has hit a roadblock, with the Cameroonian now back training with the Bees. We wrote about the changes to the keeper, captain, and coach (are they all Irish?) in the previous article (read it here ) and there are more changes afoot.
Let’s start with the staff. The big one is Manager Keith Andrews, and with him come three new assistant first-team coaches. Englishman and father of two, Martin Drury, joins from La Liga club Valencia. His CV boasts coaching Manchester United’s U15 team, and he has represented both Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday as a player.
Next up is former Arsenal U21 coach Mehmet Ali, who joins in a more technical capacity. Turkish-born, he has previously coached at Reading and Tottenham before spending three years with the Gunners.
The third addition is a Bee already , B-team head coach Brian Macfarlane. He once stood in for Thomas Frank during his bout with COVID-19, overseeing the squad in an FA Cup clash. The Scotsman has managed the B team for the last six years, and his promotion is both well-deserved and a natural progression.
To replace Brian comes a man who needs no introduction: Sam Saunders. A six-year B-team assistant coach with over 200 appearances for Brentford as a player , and a member of the club’s Hall of Fame , he is well-loved and a fan favourite.
Brentford has bolstered their squad by signing Jordan Henderson this past week. Securing Henderson is a coup akin to the Christian Eriksen signing and has softened the heavy blow of Nørgaard’s departure. The 35-year-old Englishman is world-class , a diamond already cut and polished. Calm, cool, and collected, with a trophy cabinet bursting at the seams, he has demonstrated his leadership qualities both on and off the pitch , and he even has an MBE. If there was ever a midfielder who could fill the Nørgaard-sized hole, it’s Hendo. And adding another ex-Liverpudlian to the mix makes it four now, right?
The Hounslow based club has strengthened their first team with four dynamic, high-potential youngsters , think akin to Damsgaard and Potter. Three B-team players have been promoted: 19-year-old English defender Benjamin Arthur and 19-year-old USA U20 goalkeeper Julian Eyestone. Arthur, who was the B-team player of the season for 24/25, comes from Ivan Toney’s former club, Peterborough. Romelle Donovan was originally on loan from Birmingham City to the B-team from January 2025 and signed to the B-team in June. But this English U19 attacking Mid-field has been moved up to the first team at just 18 years old.
Joining them is Dutch midfielder Antoni Milambo, signed from top-tier Eredivisie side Feyenoord. The 20-year-old attacking midfielder has featured for the Netherlands U21 team and is of Congolese descent, like Wissa.
It has been a window of change, but as the Bees gear up for their 5th year in the EPL, this new looking Brentford maybe what is needed to start breaking into the top 6 or at least challenge for a European spot.
