Guardian writers’ predicted position: 18th (NB: this is not necessarily John Brewin’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 10th
Prospects
The summer has seen Brentford transformed from established and admired club to being the enigma they once arrived in the Premier League as. If anything, even less is known about what awaits them than back in 2021. The departure of Thomas Frank removed the club’s public face, someone who embodied and fronted the rise of one of London’s smaller concerns. Without him, uncertainty is unavoidable.
Frank was a huge asset to the club, bordering on irreplaceable and so, Brentford must do things differently, as always under the club’s idiosyncratic majority ownership. There is heavy trust in the process that benefactor Matthew Benham employed to establish Brentford, while Phil Giles is a highly respected sporting director, at the club for over a decade. The pair met in a different sphere, the world of sporting statistics for betting purposes. Their great gamble this summer is to replace Frank with a rookie manager in Keith Andrews, appointed from within. Many external punters now fancy Brentford for the drop.
Success or failure will come via those processes. Frank took three key members of staff in Justin Cochrane, Chris Haslam and Joe Newton to Tottenham. Another assistant, Claus Nørgaard, has also departed. The playing staff will also look markedly – and for fans, almost certainly worryingly – different. Manchester United were shaken down for the full valuation of Bryan Mbeumo while Yoane Wissa has agitated to follow his partner out the door, too.
If those two were the biggest-name departures then further on-field leadership has exited in the club captain, Christian Nørgaard, the veteran centre-back Ben Mee and Mark Flekken, the popular, underrated goalkeeper. A very different Brentford will greet opponents next season, with the ex-Liverpool pair Jordan Henderson and Caoimhin Kelleher immediately becoming the most widely recognised players at a freshly unknown quantity in whom fans are asked to keep the faith.
The manager
Keith Andrews is new in the job but he’s not an unfamiliar face, having enjoyed a lengthy media career since his retirement from playing. Last season, Brentford fans became used to the sight of Andrews on the sidelines as Frank’s set-piece coach. Kieran McKenna, the Ipswich manager, was on the list of possibles, as was the departed Cochrane for another inside appointment. In late June, Andrews, with little frontline managerial previous beyond spells as assistant at MK Dons and then the Republic of Ireland, was plumped for. He has huge shoes to fill, even if he does have the bountiful hair to match his beloved predecessor.
Off-field picture
The summer of great change continued in July when Benham cashed out a minority stake of around 25%, for a deal valuing Brentford around £400m. The new minority owners are the South Africa-based UK businessman and former Autoglass chief executive Gary Lubner and the film mogul Sir Matthew Vaughn, behind such films as Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Kick-Ass and Layer Cake. Vaughn is also Mr Claudia Schiffer. Benham had been seeking new investment since late 2023, and the pair have paid £100m for their share of his Best Intentions Analytics holding company. Vaughn has revealed he previously considered buying in 25 years ago, when “it would have been much cheaper”. The chief executive, Jon Varney, and Giles will, though, continue to run the club day to day.
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Star signing
At 35, Jordan Henderson still has plenty to prove. There are doubts over his candidacy to be a member of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad after ill-starred, and controversial, moves to Saudi Arabia and Ajax. If many expected a return to his Sunderland roots, Henderson chose London, there perhaps being little coincidence he is within easy reach of a Tuchel scouting trip. Henderson, as a Premier League-winning captain, brings huge experience, the type of leadership a club shorn of key personnel might seek. But has he the legs to play the all-out pressing style Brentford favoured under Frank and highly likely to continue under Andrews?
Stepping up
Michael Kayode’s loan move from Fiorentina was made permanent in May for a fee of £17.5m, after 12 impressive Premier League appearances. The Italy Under-21 international showed off his promise during that short window, including a rampaging overlapping right-back’s performance in a 4-3 May victory over Manchester United that showed off Frank’s team at its risk-and-reward best. “He was very strong,” said the departed manager of a powerhouse performance from a player who has assimilated well into the Bees’ culture. “An easy decision,” said Giles once the move was made permanent. Kayode’s long throws represent a considerable addition to the already dangerous set-piece repertoire Brentford can boast.
A big season for
Fábio Carvalho is another, though perhaps forgotten, ex-Liverpool player within the Brentford squad, someone who fell victim to the spate of injuries that denied Brentford’s push for Europe last season. Like Igor Thiago, the club-record signing striker whose first season was wrecked by a knee injury, a shoulder injury robbed the 22-year-old of the final three months of 2024-25. Both Thiago and Carvalho will represent near-new additions to Brentford’s squad. West London, when at Fulham, is where Carvalho played the best football of his career though admittedly at Championship level. Frank never quite harnessed the Portugal Under-21 player signed for £27.5m a year ago. “The new coaches have been great – full of energy, fresh ideas,” Carvalho said during his club’s pre-season training camp.
