Take your mind back to the late afternoon of Sunday, the 17th of August 2025 as nearly 3,000 bedraggled and bemused Brentford fans made their way home stunned, shocked and disappointed at having seen a weakened, disjointed, disorganised and underprepared rabble of a Brentford team annihilated by Nottingham Forest. The late withdrawal of star man Damsgaard as his wife had gone into labour was the final straw. Three goals up at halftime, Forest thankfully declared at the interval and Igor Thiago then scored his first goal for the club to make the final score a slightly less embarrassing 3-1 – but even his goal summed up the shambles of the afternoon as his half-hit penalty kick placed almost straight down the middle of the goal barely trickled over the line to give us a consolation goal we never really deserved.
Fast forward to the final day of the season and the late afternoon of 24th May 2026 when a similar number of Brentford fans made their way back from Anfield, also feeling disappointed, but this time for a totally different reason, as the Bees had come within a hairsbreadth of qualifying for the Europa League when Dango Ouattara’s last gasp 100th minute close-range header flew narrowly over the crossbar, thus denying us by the narrowest of margins our first win at Liverpool since 1937 and our first taste of major European competition (sorry but the Anglo-Italian Trophy of 1992/93 really does not cut it).
What a confusing, compelling roller coaster of a season, which ended with Brentford achieving their third top ten place in five seasons, finishing ninth with 53 points, following a 10th place finish with 56 points in 2025 and another ninth place in 2023 when a record total of 59 points were gained.
What made last season’s achievement so meritorious was the pronounced levelling up of standards in the Premier League – there were simply no lame ducks. In 2023 the Bees finished a massive 25 points ahead of the relegated club in 18th place, in 2025 we finished 31 points ahead of Leicester who finished 18th. Last season the league was totally compressed with everybody capable of beating everybody else, with West Ham relegated with 39 points, only 14 less than Brentford, and the clubs from sixth to 14th were separated by a mere 10 points in perhaps the most even and competitive Premier League for years.
Whilst we should always be looking up the table rather than down, I think, in passing, we would all fervently hope that the three promoted clubs in Coventry, Ipswich and Hull all struggle to adapt to the higher level next season and provide everyone else with some breathing space and remove any lingering fears of relegation!
That being said Brentford are finally widely recognised as an “established Premier League club” – testimony indeed to the excellence of the entire playing, coaching, medical and administrative staff and the way they work together in a totally aligned manner towards a common goal.
But that was certainly not the case during the summer of 2025 as everything that the club had worked so hard to achieve threatened to fall apart at the seams. Inspirational Head Coach Thomas Frank, the second longest serving Manager/Head Coach in the Premier League finally left us on 12th June after seven seasons in charge and nearly nine years at the club. Nobody could blame him for taking up what seemed at the time like a golden opportunity that unfortunately soon turned into a poisoned chalice at Spurs. He had given everything and achieved so much during his spell at the club and whilst perhaps it could be argued that a change is as good as a rest, he would undoubtedly be sorely missed, as would many of the backroom staff that followed him to North London.
But this is Brentford who do things differently to most other clubs. However gifted the Head Coach (NOT Manager!) he is simply another very important cog in the wheel and nobody is irreplaceable.
Such was the case with Frank. Many names were mooted as his successor – some more unlikely than others – with perhaps former Ajax head coach, Francesco Farioli considered a favourite. To general bemusement it soon became apparent that the club was going to swim against the tide and consider an internal appointment to ensure continuity with Justin Cochrane and Set Piece Coach Keith Andrews apparently under consideration.
All that was missing on the 27th June was a symbolic puff of white smoke as Andrews received the nod for his first ever Head Coach role to general bemusement at best and ridicule at worst.
The Bees were surely guilty of hubris and had committed suicide, was the general view amongst the majority of pundits who, similar to the outcry when Mark Warburton’s services were dispensed with in 2015, again saw the club as a laughing stock that had potentially cut its own throat and jeopardised its future by making relegation a racing certainty after settling for a mere Set Piece coach rather than hiring an experienced external applicant.
As if this was not bad enough key players started leaving what was widely seen as a sinking ship. Mark Flekken returned to Germany, Bryan Mbeumo was sold with all our love and best wishes after six seasons of impeccable service to Manchester United for a club record fee likely to reach £71 million – over 12 times what we had paid for him – his time had rightly come – and club captain Christian Norgaard could not resist the temptation to join Arsenal and perhaps win some medals. He had just signed a new contract and his would be big boots to fill.
Most damagingly, Yoane Wissa, scorer of 19 Premier League goals in 2024/25, made it abundantly clear that his head had been turned and that after four years at the club he wanted a move to Newcastle United. At nearly 29 years of age and having scored almost 50 goals for the club his ambition to earn far more money at a Champions League club was perhaps understandable despite his still being in contract at Brentford.
The way he went about trying to force the move was a textbook example of choreographed poor behaviour, sulking and bad manners. Newcastle sat back in the long grass making derisory offers, all batted away by Phil Giles, but the saga was a massive distraction to all our preseason plans with Wissa going on strike and childishly removing all references to Brentford from his Instagram page – gosh that must really have upset the ever calm and phlegmatic Giles!!!
Eventually Newcastle blinked first and on Transfer Deadline Day they cracked and offered a ridiculous £55 million for a striker – good that he most certainly was – who would probably have been valued by Brentford at no more than £40 million.
We correctly bit their hand off and finally removed a malign influence from the club who was noticeably not thanked for his past services in his farewell reference on the Brentford website. It would be pure schadenfreude to mention that hampered by his lack of a preseason and ongoing injuries Wissa was an abject failure in the North East – so I will!
Strengthening a denuded squad was a priority and high calibre recruits arrived in goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, from Liverpool, young box-to-box midfielder Antoni Milambo from Feyenoord, Jordan Henderson as an experienced head both on and off the field and to general delight, Michael Kayode made his loan move from Fiorentina a permanent one, as did exciting winger Romelle Donovan.
The last-minute loss of Wissa gave little time to find a like-for-like replacement although winger Reiss Nelson arrived on loan from Arsenal for a frustrating injury hit season where he was never consistently fit enough to make a real contribution.
A replacement for Mbeumo was essential and Dango Ouattara arrived from Bournemouth for an eye-watering club record fee being £42.5 million including add on’s just in time to score the winner on his debut against Aston Villa.
All these comings and goings proved to be a massive distraction and ensured that Brentford were seriously undercooked at the start of the season.
The first three points of the season were essential to restore confidence and a strengthened team including Ouattara, Henderson and Damsgaard delivered the goods with an archetype Brentford performance where they outpowered the visitors and put on a strong defensive show. More good news during the week with a comfortable Carabao Cup win at Bournemouth with good goals from Fabio Carvalho and Thiago.
Inconsistency was the rule rather than the exception in August at a time when Andrews was trying to make up for the interrupted preseason and sort out his preferred team and system. This was exemplified by a disappointing and frankly annoying last-minute loss at Sunderland where the winner squirmed under Kelleher and Kevin Schade, surprisingly entrusted with a vital spot kick, made a total hash of his opportunity. Hindsight is easy but the lost point and two extra gained by the home team were to have crucial ramifications at the end of the season.
With one key exception, September was a most satisfying month. A Schade long throw led to Carvalho poking home a last gasp equaliser against Chelsea as his marker Garnacho lazily dozed off at the far post – in truth the very least we deserved after a front foot performance. Villa were beaten again on penalties in the Carabao Cup in a non-event of a game illuminated by a screamer of a volley by Aaron Hickey and a composed debut by promising central defender Benjamin Arthur.
What happened next was puzzling as for the second season in a row we never turned up at Craven Cottage and were frankly flattered by a 3-1 defeat in which a lively Fulham team ran rings around us, carving us open time after time.
Manchester United were up next and it was here that Keith Andrews really began to win his spurs and clearly demonstrate what he was made of. Eschewing his customary 3-5-2 formation he went for it, employing an attractive attacking 4-3-3 with Jordan Henderson proving to be a real leader. Igor Thiago scored twice, one a fulminating volley when sent clear by Henderson and Mathias Jensen scored with a screamer to seal the win after a gorgeous length of the field transition attack that tore the visitors apart and Kelleher’s crucial penalty save also helped prove his worth and become a firm fan favourite.
October saw the season-long loss of the still unproven Milambo with a cruciate injury, so his potential impact remains a total unknown and a narrow but unsatisfactory loss to Manchester City in a game where the Bees totally sacrificed the initiative and failed to have a first half touch in the opposition penalty area. A trip to the London Stadium proved a fillip as it is always one to look forward to and this was no exception. Kayode marauded down the right flank and tore West Ham apart creating six opportunities and the Bees managed 22 shots on goal and the margin of the eventual 2-0 victory should really have been tripled as they achieved total domination over an horrendously poor home team who were an utter shambles and looked certainties for the relegation they eventually suffered.
The impetus was maintained with an unforgettable 3-2 home victory over Champions Liverpool. The trademark Michael Kayode Exocet of a long throw brought about an early goal for Ouattara and with Damsgaard at his elegant best the Bees fully deserved a 2-0 lead when the Dane’s exquisite through ball which cut open the Liverpool defence like a knife through butter, sent Schade away and he finished clinically. But for eccentric timekeeping that would have been it for the first half but the visitors controversially scored in in the 50th minute when only three minutes were due to be added.
Thiago’s clinical penalty extended the lead before a late piece of Salah brilliance reduced the lead and with substitute referee Tim Robinson (not my favourite) seeming to want to play on until Liverpool scored, the ending was tense. Seven minutes of stoppage time turned into 11 before a famous victory – our second over Liverpool since our rise to the Premier League – was finally sealed.
It was plainly evident that Andrews was having a positive effect on the team. He had a permanent smile on his face, communicated brilliantly and it was obvious that the players liked and respected him and were responding to his methods. He recognised that only tweaks were required to Thomas Frank’s successful approach rather than a total rebuild and the squad and fans alike were reacting well to his leadership.
A 5-0 thrashing of Grimsby in the Carabao Cup ensured a happy ending to October and November was an up and down week with excellent home wins against Newcastle (featuring another Kayode long throw assist) and Burnley offset by a poor non-performance at Crystal Palace in the battle of the Set Pieces which the home team won by a free kick and a skipper Nathan Collins back header into his own from a long throw as Brentford were hoist by their own petard. Igor Thiago came to the fore scoring five times in the month and he was attracting massive media attention but he missed a last gasp penalty kick at Brighton which would have earned the Bees a hard-won point and, again, this would have massive ramifications at the end of the season.
December started badly with defeats at Arsenal and Spurs. Andrews rotated at The Emirates and the Bees were solid in a 2-0 loss to the eventual Champions but the gamble failed to reap any rewards as the team never turned up at Spurs, donating Thomas Frank three easy points in a game where left back Kristoffer Ajer was given the run around by Mohammed Kudos.
Jordan Henderson scored a good goal against Leeds but a flat performance only brought about one point and a predictable third consecutive 2-0 away defeat followed against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.
This led to a turning point in the season as Brentford were beginning to slide ominously but a comfortable 2-0 win at rock-bottom Wolves arrested the slump with Keane Lewis-Potter running the show and scoring twice.
The Christmas and New Year programme saw the Bees restored to their best with a fit again Vitaly Janelt pulling all the strings and making all the difference. A strong Bournemouth side were thrashed 4-1 with Kevin Schade scoring an excellent hat trick but the real star of the show was an unplayable Igor Thiago.
A dull 0-0 draw on Thomas Frank’s return to the Gtech where it appeared that both teams had signed a non-aggression pact was followed by the best performance of the season in a 4-2 away thrashing of Everton where Thiago tore them apart with a wonderful hat trick and the midfield quartet of Janelt, Jensen, Damsgaard and Yehor Yarmoliuk dovetailed to good effect.
The January Transfer Window passed quietly but extremely favourably with key men Janelt, Thiago and Ajer extending their contracts and 18 year-old Kaye Furo – one for the future – arriving to understudy Thiago from Club Brugge.
A comfortable 3-0 victory over season surprise team Sunderland saw Kelleher make a comfortable save from a Panenka penalty and Thiago’s two perfectly taken goals – one celebrated with a wild run down the touchline by Keith Andrews who jumped onto his back, and a long-awaited first ever goal for Yarmoliuk saw the Bees rise to the giddy heights of fifth place in the table and perhaps even starting to dream of the Champions League!
Two setbacks followed with a ridiculously unfair 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge after playing Chelsea off the park, missing countless gilt-edged chances and conceding two soft goals and then Forest completing the double and doing a stifling number on us with another 2-0 win in a game where the Bees only had one shot on target.
February proved to be a wonderfully successful month for the Bees who won three of their five matches, drawing against Arsenal and progressing to the fifth round of the FA Cup. Most importantly they took a tight hold of seventh place in the table with every hope if not expectation of actually winning a place in Europe for next season.
In one of the best, bravest and most organised performances of the season, the Bees won at Aston Villa for the first time in their history. A positive start was negated when Matt Cash stitched Schade up like a kipper, inviting retaliation which duly arrived with the feckless winger fully deserving his red card. Despite going down to 10 men, the Bees immediately seized the initiative with Ajer setting set up Ouattara up for a magnificently taken breakaway goal.
The second half was one-way traffic but Kayode, Henry, Ajer, van den Berg and substitute Collins all defended heroically with VAR for once coming to our aid correctly disallowing a goal scored after the ball went out of play.
Even better was to follow with a 3-2 win at Newcastle United, our first win at a raucous St James’ Park since 1934. Despite an early soft goal conceded from a corner, Brentford kept playing their football with Janelt and Ouattara leading the way and the winger’s late volley from a perfect parabolic Jensen chip brought us three hard won points as Donovan’s trickery helped to run down the clock.
Perhaps the best performance of the season came the following Thursday when Arsenal were distinctly fortunate to escape with a 1-1 draw after the Bees had hammered them in a frenetic second half. Kayode’s long throw and van den Berg’s flick-on led to a Keane Lewis-Potter equaliser and Thiago and Damsgaard came within inches of scoring a winner.
The Bees were firing on all cylinders and were justifiably full of confidence and all looked set fair for Europe but almost as quickly as things had improved so drastically, they began to deteriorate and the Bees to slide.
All looked good almost on half time at Turf Moor as the Bees had strolled imperiously to a 3-0 lead and according to Kevin Schade “thought we were going to score six”. With the last touch of the first half Michael Kayode deflected the goal into his own goal and everything changed. Burnley sprang into life, equalised, had a fourth goal disallowed and then, after the Bees fought back and Damsgaard scored in the 93rd minute, the excitement was not yet over as a potential equaliser was disallowed by VAR in the 99th minute.
A quite bonkers match but it seemed that Brentford never again fully recovered their rhythm or composure and were desperately clinging on to seventh place instead of kicking on and getting over the line to confirm European qualification.
The reasons for the turnabout in form and results are fairly obvious. Injuries to key men Vitaly Janelt who had been playing the best football of his career and Rico Henry certainly did not help and with so many squad players out on loan the bench looked distinctly threadbare and Andrews was often loath to make changes when he looked at the bench and saw a creche rather than battle hardened Premier League players. Such is the way of doing things at Brentford and the results of this policy more than speak for themselves.
There was a surfeit of central defenders with poor Ethan Pinnock underutilised but often young Romelle Donovan and the oft-injured Reiss Nelson were the only viable options for Andrews to consider.
The games gradually began to slip away, every game in March was drawn as well as a disappointing exit from the FA Cup at West Ham when a full-strength team went out cruelly on penalties (and the least said about Ouattara’s miserable failed Panenka effort where he took 19 seconds from the moment he addressed the ball to when he hit it, the better).
Five eminently winnable games in a row were drawn with home points frittered away against Wolves, Everton and Fulham before an unlucky defeat at Old Trafford where an obviously shattered Igor Thiago stumbled over a plethora of gilt-edged chances. The loss at Manchester City was expected if yet again key decisions went against the Bees, and everything rested on the final game of the season in which to guarantee a European place Brentford needed to win at Anfield, where they had failed to defeat Liverpool since 1937.
In what often seemed to resemble a testimonial match as Liverpool bade farewell to Mo Salah and Andy Robertson, the Bees stuck in there, missed a massive opportunity to take the lead, equalised with an excellent Schade header and then in the 100th minute the chance that they had worked so hard to create finally arrived.
Janelt stood up a perfect cross, Ouattara climbed high but could not quite get over the ball, ignoring the better placed Schade roaring in behind him, and his header went just over the crossbar – thus evaporating our European chances.
Given the massive Summer upheaval and the generally held view outside – but crucially not inside the club – that the Bees were doomed to relegation Keith Andrews performed miracles, fully deserving the vote of confidence shown to him with a contract extension and serious consideration as Manager of the Year.
There was so much to be positive about. The previous season’s front three of Mbeumo, Wissa and Schade scored 50 goals between them and yet Thiago, Schade and Ouattara managed 37 which was deeply impressive with Thiago fully deserving his selection for the Brazil World Cup squad. Ouattara also gave every impression that he would eventually develop into an exceptional replacement for the departed Mbeumo.
Mikkel Damsgaard had a mixed season and never dominated to the extent he had the previous year but was imperious and incisive on his day. Kelleher proved to be an upgrade on Flekken and the irrepressible Michael Kayode will at some point star on a world stage as there seems to be nothing that he cannot do. What a player. Yehor Yarmoliuk also improved dramatically and became a first team mainstay.
Another highlight was the return of the oft-injured Josh Dasilva and hopefully he can now enjoy an injury free season.
I feel that this was a massively successful season given the obstacles that had to be overcome. Of course, I would have loved to watch Brentford play in Europe and that is the next stage in our development and I am sure that it will come sooner rather than later particularly if we can improve our record against middle of the table teams against many of whom we struggled.
That being said, football finance expert Kieran Maguire apparently feels that not qualifying for Europe is the best financial option for the club as playing in the Europa or Conference Leagues is hardly a money spinner unless you go far in the competition and is often accompanied by a serious deterioration in the league performances given the strain imposed on the squad, extra travelling and regular Thursday and Sunday match routine. Extra players and wages are also needed to cope with the additional matches. With every place in the Premier League worth around £3 million in prize money a fall from 10th to 15th place would cost the club around £15 million.
All good sound common sense but I still wanted to watch us in Europe – what a book that would make – “The Bees on a European Tour” – maybe next season!
GREVILLE WATERMAN
I spoke to Jonathan Burchill who kindly provided me with some snippets of information and key facts relating to last season:
Congratulations to Lee Carsley on his MBE.
He joins former Brentford managers:
Frank McLintock
Steve Perryman
Leroy Rosenior
Brentford’s PL scoring pattern in 2025-6:
Won 14 in those games For 39 Against 13
Drew 11 For 11 Against 11
Lost 13 For 5 Against 28 (no games with 2 goals scored)
Took 27 points in first half of season, 26 in 2nd half.
Brentford’s top 3 league scorers accounted of 67% of the goals
Thiago 22, Schade 8, Outtara 7
Last season Mbeumo 20, Wissa 19 & Schade 11 scored 76% of the goals.
Only beaten by
77% in 1977-8 Phillips 32, McCulloch 22, Sweetzer 12
82% in 1958-9 Towers 32, Francis 22, Rainford 8
Thiago scored 40% of Brentford’s League goals this season 22 of 55.
Only 4 other players have reached that level in club’s league history:
1996-7 Carl Asaba 23 of 56 (41%)
1992-3 Gary Blissett 21 of 52 (40%)
1958-9 Jim Towers 32 of 76 (42%)
1932-3 Jack Holliday 39 of 90 (43%)
Kevin Schade’s goal at Anfield was Brentford’s first since 1974 when Roger Cross scored in EFL Cup tie (L1-2) 18,884 days earlier.
And first in the League (Top Tier) since 1937 in a 4-3 win when Bobby Reid scored a hat-trick & rounded off by Dave McCulloch 32,341 days ago.
This season Brentford finished with 53 points, based on score at half time it would have been 55
Last season ended 56, compare to 62 at h/t
27% (15) of Bees goals scored were after min 80
Highest in our PL seasons
If we score 1st goal – W13 D4 L3
If we concede 1st goal – W1 D3 L10
This season Brentford took:
A point from the champions
An average of 4 points from teams 3-7
16 from 18 points from relegated sides
But only 2 points from teams in 8, 10 & 11
And from 15, 16 & 17
Doubles over sides in 4, 12, 18, 19
Doubles over us from 2, 8, 16
City & Forest hit the goal diff by -4
WestHam gave us +5
So, 40 points was enough for PL safety.
Brentford reached that number in game 26, the 1-1 draw with Arsenal (H) on 12 February.
Achieved more points than the bottom 2 clubs before Christmas.
Season 2025-26 will go down as Brentford’s 4th (equal) highest ever finish in the club’s history.
Beaten only by 5th, 6th, & 6th in 1936, 1937 & 1938 and equal with 2022-23.
Keith Andrews’s record has only been bettered by Harry Curtis.
Igor Thiago is the only Brentford player to play in all 38 PL games this season (37 starts + 1 used sub)
Liverpool (A) was Brentford’s 400th Top Tier league match:
210 in Division 1 (in 1930/40s)
190 in Premier League
Back in September Jordan Henderson became the first current Brentford player to captain the England team.
Previously the club only had former captains arriving at Brentford –
Tommy Lawton, player, then player-manager, 1952-3
Terry Butcher, manager, 2007
Record breaking signings always come with a weight of fan’s expectation of success. After just 12 minutes Dango Ouattara scored on debut to make an instant impact. But since joining the football league in 1920, the club have broken the transfer record 33 times, yet Dango was only the 5th of those to score on debut. The first was also our first £1,000 player, Ernie Watkins in 1926, the prolific Dave McCulloch, signed for £6k in 1935, who apart from his debut goal went on to average a goal a game for his next 25, in our original top tier season. John Dick was the 3rd, and the previous to score an open play debut goal in 1962 after his £17k transfer. The last before Dango, was Joe Allon, costing 250k, in 1992, although his was a penalty.
With regard to the early penalties, we had had 5 seasons of Toney & Mbeumo scoring 32 penalties (league & P/O) out of 34. Toney missed just 1, as did Mbeumo, ironically our final one of last season v Fulham (H). So, this season was always going to see a change of taker.
Thank you, Jonathan
Congratulations, Carole and Greville, May 25th 2026