Johnnyp

Very interesting. What the Lange and incoming MacKenzie appointment does is, i think it's gonna put Smith under the lens a lot more forensicly. I was delighted obviously seeing us stay up on the final day but when you look back over the season as a whole, parts were dreadful. I may be way off but it appears they are assembling a very polished team on the sporting director / recruitment side and i think the coaching and playing staffs performance will need to get in line with that also.

Bang on. The Villa media side if anything are a little bit full on at times. Like, nice to see the videos from when they interviewed Mark Harrison but again other clubs wouldn't be putting up YouTube videos of interviews with the new guy over the academy. We don't need to hear from Lange. Just because we aren't hearing from him, it doesn't mean he's not working.

Exactly. Live scouting, to some degree, will always be a key component.

Exactly. Brentford work the way they do because if they didn't they'd be about as relevant in London as Leyton Orient. The had to work outside the box. They didn't choose to just to be fashionable.

Can you ask him for that fiver i lent him.

And for all their drooling out the side of your mouth football, the funny thing is , their sole achievement in recent history was promotion from league one under Warburton which predated their moneyball , data/analytics approach.

All very good points but their is a whole market out there for us to explore and real value if we do our homework.

I think it's the physicality. Bundesliga is not nearly as physical or as fast as the premier league. Always see lots of Polish and Croatians too wind up in Serie A also, technically very good players but the pace of the game is much slower.

Totally agree. I'm sure Ollie Watkins is a top player, but we should be aiming higher. Not a slight on him, it's just....Brentford. We got burned once with Hogan, and he, like Watkins scored truckloads for them. They are not your run of the mill club. They do things very differently to most and in their case, appearances can actually be deceptive.

The trade off is the key word. I'm sure their data and analytics people wouldn't of brought up pontus jansson but there has to be a human and emotional element to decision making also at times. I think they would of been worse off without him. One thing data and analytics can't account for or assess are the intangibles - ,responsibility, bottle, bravery. Brentford had none of those yesterday and the last 2 games of the season also. The way they work is admirable and they do it because they have to gain an edge because they haven't the financial muscle to compete with others, but clearly, it isn't bulletproof.

He's been at Torino an eternity now. There's a reason top clubs haven't taken a punt on him.

I genuinely don't know. Everyone is an expert with the benefit of hindsight but i mean i was excited when we were linked and ultimately signed Hogan and people here would be lying if they said otherwise. The thing that worries me about Brentford is that their players careers seem to nosedive when they are taken out of their unique, secret, closed off to the world way of setting teams up / coaching. Hogan, Woods, Jota. All stellar for Brentford, looked like having world class ability to looking completely average in other sides. As creative as their sides are, are they shoehorned into a way of playing that comes hard to shake off when they move on. It's the fear with Watkins. Is it Hogan x2.

You do know there is only one of them sectarian, right ?

Nixon is adamant that 30 million is the fee set for Edouard. Not saying he's an authority or anything, just saying. I think Celtic have a neck even asking for that relative to the level of competition they play. Seen him score a hatrick against Hamilton at the weekend. Not been funny when i say they are the equivalent of a league one club. So, you have to take his and Morelos and anyone up there, scoring record with a pinch of salt. I'd be interested to see Edouard's record in Europe. That's of more value to me. Edit: 11 goals in 29 European games. That's not bad. Although you do have to factor in Celtic play farmers from Moldova and Kazakhstan in the opening champions league rounds.

Yeah i reckon we'll get Watkins and we'll get it done pretty quickly. He's got a fantastic attitude. He's not above work, love seeing that in a player . I don't mean sprinting to close down a player because your manager let's a roar at you and then reverting back to walking around then. Watkins looks like he enjoys defending from the front and when you are out of possession, defence needs to start from the front. Playing off the left is massive for us also if he's required to do that if Wesley comes back and we get a tune out of him.

I'd take Watkins. Terrific attitude and improves year on year. Henry is very small and light. I think he'd find it tough. Defensively he's pretty average.

I've no doubt there is a few in for Edouard. The fee being consistently reported is 30miilion. Go straight it. Doesn't happen we can move on.

I thought his passing was abysmal. Like, 5 yard stuff , not talking about picking a guy out with a wordly

I thought his passing was abysmal. Like, 5 yard stuff , not talking about picking a guy out with a wordly

Wouldn't be paying 20 million for him though. Brentford are so remarkably well run though that they probably have no debt even on the new stadium so may not need to sell.

Leeds fans on social media remind me actually of how we were last summer when we went up. They genuinely think it's gonna be a piece of piss ( we weren't quite at that level but the general consensus among many with who we signed is we'd comfortably finish mid table ) and let's not forget, Bielsa's record in top divisiin football isn't exactly stellar. Maybe when his players come up against quality individual players, his system falls apart.

It worked out well for Leeds. He's all mouth Jansson. He's not very good. If he did stay it's unlikely they'd of signed Ben white so worked out well.

He's very very light. Quite noticeable.

Benrahma. Sorry. Not seeing it. Clumsy in possession. Same over 2 legs against Swansea.

That's like a goal you score in FIFA when the AI goes haywire. Big dive when the ball goes past him .