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Only a short piece on tonight’s Brentford v Cardiff match I’m afraid because, apart from the first twenty minutes or so, I was unable to take in the game because I was out and did not have access to any coverage except the very occasional score check.
Based on what I was able to listen to of the early stages, it was not a surprise to learn that Neil Harris’ unbeaten run as City manager came to an end following a 2-1 loss and if the pretty horrific player markings (plenty of four out of tens and a three for Nathaniel Mendez-Laing) I’ve just read on the Wales Online website are anything like accurate, it would appear that we got away lightly.
What I will say though is that for a few seasons now, Brentford have been the sort of side that can blow any Championship team away on their day, so there is always a danger that they can make you look very ordinary.
Brentford operate in a different way from most other clubs in that they rely on a very effective recruitment programme to build teams in which players tend to know that they can move on to bigger clubs if there is interest in them. Very often, these players are sold on at a very decent profit and the whole process starts again with the additional revenue they’re getting enabling them to set their sights that bit higher on a year by year basis.
Just looking at the game tonight, you can single out both goal scorers and the man who tormented Luton to distraction in their 7-0 thumping in Brentford’s previous match at Griffin Park to see examples of their approach working.
Said Benramha was signed eighteen months ago from French Ligue 2 side Nice on a four year contract for a reported fee of just £1.5 million and is a 24 year old Algerian international. He toyed with Luton a few weeks ago and, having seen the goals from tonight on video, he did the same to us in the build up to the first goal as he proved too quick and skillful for our defence as he ran with the ball and then slipped a delightful ball through to Bryan Mbeumo a 20 year old French under 21 international signed from another Ligue 2 side, Troyes, for an undisclosed fee this summer on a five year deal, who scored past Neil Etheridge on twenty five minutes.
Benramha is a right winger and Mbeumo plays on the left, while there is proof that Brentford do not just look abroad when putting together their cosmopolitan team at centre forward in Ollie Watkins, signed from Exeter as a 21 year old two years ago for a reported fee of £1.8 million.
Watkins nodded in the second goal tonight in the first minute of the second half – it was his thirteenth of the season and so if Brentford were to accept an offer for him in the transfer window next month, it would be for very considerably more than what they paid for him.
There are others in their side I could name, but you get the point – Brentford are an example of how important a good recruitment programme is in modern day football and, to be frank, they are putting so called bigger clubs, Cardiff City for example, to shame.
City do not sign players like Benramha, Mbeomu and Watkins, preferring instead to go with a policy in recent years of recruiting “ready made” footballers in their mid to late twenties, or even thirties, who have often cost a lot more than the fees Brentford tend to pay and yet have been less successful.
Yes, you get the occasional exception to the rule such as Gavin Whyte who fall into the younger age bracket (not as young as any of the three players I mentioned above when Brentford signed them mind) but, generally speaking, our approach has led to a squad which is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the Championship with a resale value which may just be higher than what we paid in putting it together, but that is very much a matter for debate.
I should say that it would appear that City did come back pretty strongly in the final third of the match tonight and the goal Marlon Pack scored from twenty five yards after Lee Tomlin had teed him up from a free kick was a beauty. Tomlin also forced home keeper Raya into a good save late on, while Danny Ward should have done better with a close range chance.
However, the impression I get is that this was another game where the limitations that have been apparent too often this season were on display again – we have responded well to the appointment of a new manager, but, the Forest game apart perhaps, we did not look like top six material even during the first four games of the Neil Harris era.