Here we go. Again! A fifth season in the Premier League begins for Brentford with Sunday’s trip to Nottingham Forest. Nick Bruzon previews.
Premier League football is now ‘the norm’ at TW8 and perhaps the longer-standing fans, still battle-scarred by failed take-overs and bucket collections, will finally be able to put ‘dreamland’ to bed, accept that this is ‘the new normal’ and look for more. Why not? Football is as much about aspiration and dreaming as it is anything else. Why not aim for Europe rather than ‘not going down’? Why not build on last season?
All well and good but it’s Brentford, innit? Summer activity means the stability of Thomas Frank’s hand on the tiller is no longer anything we can rely on. He’s now at Spurs – where things remain as Spursy as ever, judging by Wednesday’s Super Cup result – and the Bees now take a step into the unknown. Keith Andrews’ first game as a Premier League head coach sees everybody waiting to see just how things will play out.
Thursday’s press conference at least gave some insight as to his first team selection. Definitely missing are Vitaly Janelt, Gustavo Nunes and Yoanne Wissa.
The former, seemingly still not recovered following his missing the end of last season whilst the Wissa situation is one which has caused Keith all manner of headaches since taking over at the Gtech .
The player’s desire to follow those who have already moved on over the close(d?) season has been painted in ten foot tall letters. Forest had a derisory nibble of the sort we used to get from West Ham before Newcastle United made more of an offer. Albeit well below the club’s valuation. Their interest has now been put on temporary hiatus following their own similar issues with Alexander Isak.
With Wissa having already refused to play and now banished to the fringes of the training ground, a parting of the ways has seemed inevitable. Yet nothing has happened. His public gamble – a move akin to employing Carvalho Senior as his PR man – has backfired massively and, instead, all we can now say is that he is not in Sunday’s squad.
It was press conference by numbers on that front with nothing of any substance revealed beyond the player’s desire to leave, the apparent great relationship between the pair and the fact that he’s not involved after what Keith diplomatically called, “A very disrupted pre-season.”
No surprises. Nobody really thought he’d be involved. Neither would there have been any genuine expectation of revelatory bombshells. It’s just not what happens at these things.
The areas of more concern surround new goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher and wideman Kevin Schade. Both missed the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach and their involvement at the City ground sounds somewhat of a delicate scenario.
Whilst both are now officially back on the grass, the most we’ve been given is the somewhat vague-sounding, “Whether they will be absolutely ready we’ll see over the next day and a half, then we’ll make that decision .”
Trying to read between the lines is the Devil’s own task. The simple fact is that only the coaching staff will know for sure how close either player is to featuring. It was the usual smoke and mirrors we’ve seen from whomever has been in the seat that Keith currently occupies.
Up front, Igor Thiago will be the main hope for goals. Again, the challenge for Keith will be one not experienced by Thomas Frank. Namely, how to set these up without Bryan Mbeumo?
Perhaps it’ll be a case of walking it up to him as everyone adjusts. Give the ball to Damsgaard and let him drive forward. At least until the team find their feet together.
Plenty to ponder although I’m sure Keith and his players already know who will start this one. The backline looks ridiculously strong. Nathan Collins is, quite rightly, named as new captain whilst Jordan Henderson already seems an excellent addition. Both changes coming about given Christian Norgaard has joined David Raya at Arsenal for a nice kick about with the boys.
As for our hosts, they have their own problems. Talking to a Forest fan on holiday, he was of the opinion that tying down the much-coveted Morgan Gibbs-White was nothing more than a crowd-pleasing temporary stay of execution.
Whilst good news at face value, a release trigger in his new contract means that if the player shows the form of last season, he’ll be gone by Christmas anyway. At least they have secured the services of Swiss winger Dan Ndoye. A colossal transfer fee but will he be able to slot straight in?
We all know that pre-season form counts for nothing but given the amount of games played, Nuno must have been hoping for way, way better. In 7(seven) fixtures, they scored a grand total of one goal, drew 0-0 five times and lost the other two. It is a run of anti-form that money just couldn’t buy.
By all accounts Neco Williams and Callum Hudson-Odoi impressed in that last runout, the visit of Al-Qadsiah. Then again, 0-0 is still 0-0. No matter how exciting a performance was put in.
Of course, it means sweet FA once the league starts but owner Evangelos Marinakis, like our own Matthew Benham is somebody who likes to remain ‘under the radar’, and will likely be taking it all in his stride. He seems an easy man to get along with and so I’m sure there will be patience a plenty to allow his own team to get going.
Both teams with all eyes on them, then. For totally different reasons. At one point last season it looked like Forest would make the Champions League. Instead, they limped into the Europa Conference before being bumped past Crystal Palace into the second tier on a somewhat spurious sounding technicality. Rules, eh?
I can’t wait for this one. The start of a new season is always beyond exciting but this one has that added layer of intrigue given how much feels ‘up in the air’. Everybody has an opinion on the new coach, who starts, the club’s transfer business and how we’ll fare in the league.
Bring it on and we can start to get some answers.
