Sam3773

Ah, the bottom half of the table. Hello darkness, my old friend..

Bad example..

Oh, I know..

Grealish and Carroll coming back (in McGinn's absence) would allow Smith to push Hourihane back to DM. Remember how good he was at recycling the ball when he played there? He fell to crap when he had to play in a more advanced position. I'd like to see Carroll start to see what he can do. I know his passing is meant to be superb, but it'll be good to see how hungry he is to win the ball, press the opposition and pick up those 2nd balls. As rodders says, can he be any worse..?

---------------------- Kalinic Elmo ------ Elphick -- Mings -------- Hause ------------------- Hourihane Adomah -- Carroll -- Grealish ----- El Ghazi ------------------- Abraham We're going up.

My neck, my back...

Impossible. Jones has never finished higher than League Two.

Long overdue return. Still can't see him going in the summer after this season. Hopefully Smith can build a team around him and keep him injury free.

Brentford's level* We'll see.

Bruce came in when we were 19th, had an alright start, a terrible run of 9 games without a win, ended the season in 13th with the most expensive squad in the league. Got a summer, bought in some of his go to OAPs and got us to 4th. Smith came in when we were 15th, had an alright start, going through a terrible run of 1 win in 10 games, with probably end the season around 13th with second oldest squad in the league. He'll get a summer, bring in some of his go to young, hungry players and get us to......? I love a comparison.

Mixed it up today, albeit forced to with the formation. We looked better in midfield, although we lacked pace. I'm sure Smith was happier with the second half performance today than a few of the others in recent times.

Gets my vote. Growing in confidence and ability in that position. I have a bit of confidence in our left back for the first time in a very, very long time.

Strong second half, constantly knocking on the door. We're just not clinical enough.

I had it as El Ghazi playing down the middle with Elmo and Kodjia wide.. Might be wrong. Would love to see that though.

The initial point wasn't about transfers though. I fully understand the nature of our model and I'm very much aware that more and more clubs are moving to that model. Someone else back in the thread was talking about Smith having little influence on the development of players at Brentford, implying he did very little. I have to keep reminding myself that we all want the same thing, just disagree about how we get there. Equally it seems some people just dislike Smith and are very quick to dismiss anything he's done as someone else.

We're descending into madness here. Now we're to believe Smith had very little to do with coaching at Brentford, and in fact there was an army of 300 coaches who did it all while Smith stared longingly at a poster of Paul Mcgrath. The 10 games before Smith left, Brentford took 14 points. The 10 games after they took 4. What happened if not Smith then? The Shoelace tying coach take a sabbatical? A crazy point to disprove a crazy statement.

Yet he managed to bring a few from Walsall in with him? There's no denying he wasn't the decision maker on transfers though, the point was about him developing youth players which is something he's done all of his career. I find it absurd that someone thinks Smith had 'very little' to coaching and developing the young players, as the head coach.

Unless he brought that 'tonne of coaches and analysts' with him from Walsall, it is what he's about. As for his contribution at Brentford, I think Smith having 'very little' to do with it is probably a statement only a coach or player at Brentford could make. Unless you work for Bielsa..?

I want out of this league if only to get assigned some sighted officials.

You can say that again.

If it helps him make any decision to sign for us in the Summer, give him the armband. Seems like a natural leader.

I went with next season. 2020. And I honestly believe that for many, many reasons. While I believe some of our squad are poor, we have a few players who I think can do a very good job in this league. Grealish stays for me. Unless he bangs in 20 goals in his remaining games I don't see anyone matching his valuation given his season so far. The youngsters will be back, except with first team men's football experience and a few of them will be very handy at this level, hopefully next season. We will have money to spend. Not a lot, but we will. I'm sure of this given our coolness regarding FFP and the investment we've made into a goalkeeper and buying a right back, to loan him back for the rest of the season. Sound like a club under financial pressure? I dont buy the 'next season will be a transition' stuff either. Preseason is the transition phase. Farke, Jokanovic, Nuno, Bielsa.. They didn't have a whole season to transition. The first two had poor half's of a season with someone else's squad. They all had one preseason though and their squad was ready. 2020. Its ours. Champions.

Can't wait to find out who I'll be watching.

Well he's signed a goalkeeper for double Brentford's record signing so..

With a League one budget.