Bees United Chairman Brian Burgess gives his thoughts on this season (This article was first published in Brentford matchday programme against Port Vale on Saturday, 28 April). 

Another season draws to a close and no Brentford supporter will be happy with it. So what went wrong?

Was it the budget?

Personally I don’t believe it was the budget but the way it was spent!

The budget for the season was set by the Brentford FC (BFC) board last May when Martin Allen was still with us. The board underwrote an extra £200,000 more than it originally planned in order to give the manager the same budget that he had had at the start of the previous season when he had used it to get to the play-offs and the 5th round of the FA Cup. Martin decided to leave but the board kept the same budget for the new manager.

As we have seen neither Leroy nor Scott were able to achieve results with the squad and the money at their disposal. Martin overachieved but his successors under achieved on the money available.

Given where we are as a business and the mandatory limit in League 2 that the playing budget cannot exceed 60% of total income, we need a management team that can bring success with the resources we’ve got, including the promising youngsters coming through the youth system.

Clearly the club board has made mistakes with managerial appointments, managers have made mistakes with signing players and players have made mistakes on the field. We are all sorry for the way things have turned out and we accept our share of responsibility.

So what is being done to turn things around?

The first priority is for the BFC board to appoint a new football management team with the experience and ability to lead not only the players but also to galvanise the supporters. I believe that the appointment of Terry Butcher, a proven leader, is this first step.

The second priority is for the BFC board and Managing Director, Keith Dickens, to deliver a budget for next season that will enable the club to survive through to the start of the following season without running out of cash. This is not easy and requires some tough judgements on the level of average attendances that the team’s performances will generate.

The Fans Forum on Thursday 3 May will give an opportunity to supporters to question the board on this.

What is Bees United’s role in all this?

My comments above focus on the need for the BFC board, under the leadership of chairman, Greg Dyke, to make good decisions in difficult circumstances. The BFC board has a legal duty to act in the best interests of the club and on behalf of all its shareholders.

Bees United, the supporters’ trust, is the 60% majority shareholder and nominates four members of the BFC board. It does not and should not run the club on a day-to-day basis. So what role does the Bees United board have?

The role of the Bees United board is to agree the overall strategy for the club and the way in which it is financed. It can set targets and then let the BFC board get on with it. Joe Bourke and myself, as the two individuals that sit on both boards, act as the main channel of communications between the two organisations and advocate the views of each to the other.

Both boards agree that the best long-term strategy is for the club to move to a new stadium that can generate greater commercial income throughout the week so that we are less dependant on gate revenue. Long-term efforts are therefore focused on the Lionel Road project and we are currently negotiating with Chancerygate an option to buy the site.

The urgent debate is how to find the cash to make sure the club can survive for the next five or so years before a new stadium could be completed. Bees United makes an essential contribution to this with our fundraising efforts. (For example the trust increases its loans to the club each month to pay the interest on the £500,000 loan from Hounslow Council.)

The recent deal with Matthew Benham to takeover £3 million of loans from Altonwood and Barclays Bank, make these interest free for five years and save the club over £150,000 each year is a good example of how Bees United and the BFC board can work together to improve the financial position. More cash will be required over the next few years and we are now looking at how the club can raise money from existing shareholders, possibly through a rights issue, and how Bees United can contribute to this without diluting its ownership below 50%. Other clubs depend on their shareholders to put in cash and in the short term we must do the same.

Is relegation the end of the world?

Finally I would like to refer to my comments at the Bees United AGM in November which were subsequently misquoted by people who either were not at the meeting or didn’t understand the points that I and others were making.

Like every other Brentford supporter I am gutted that the club has been relegated. I have lost enough sleep as we struggled in League 1 and nobody wants the added threat of dropping out of the league after another bad season.

Bees United’s ambition is for Brentford to play in the Championship and I was making three points at the AGM:

i) If we can’t raise enough money to compete with the bigger spenders in League 1 Bees United members have to think seriously about whether we would prefer the club to stay in supporters ownership and survive playing at the level at which we can compete or whether we should sell a substantial chunk of our shareholding to someone who would put more money into the club. I hope that our plans for a rights issue will come up with a ‘middle way’ of solving this dilemma.

ii) Spending more money would not guarantee success. Plenty of clubs have learnt this lesson. What counts is the way you spend the money you have got.

iii) That relegation to League 2 had proved to be a springboard for other clubs to rebuild and be successful. Colchester, Southend,  Hull and Swansea were the examples I had in mind. This season Hartlepool, Walsall and Swindon have also reinforced this point. No one wanted to go down, but now that we have we are determined to learn from what these others have done to bounce back.

Thank you

On behalf of Bees United I would like to thank all Bees fans for the magnificent commitment to the club that you have continued to show throughout a traumatic season. This is exemplified by the Fighting Chance Appeal that raised over £40,000 and the planned Brighton to Brentford Walk on 19th and 20th May. You deserve much better than the performances we have seen this season.

Everyone connected with the club will now be working hard to get things right for next season.

To all supporters - Please enjoy the summer break and come back refreshed and ready for an exciting year ahead.

Brian Burgess
Chair, Bees United