Ollie Watkins

[Red Devon]

The latest word is that Tottenham are lining up a £20million bid for Watkins

 

[scottus86]

I've always felt he would fit in well at spurs.

 

[BerksBee]

Is a capacity of 17,500 really 'Premiership ready'? Doesn't seem much bigger (in capacity) to what they have now.

Since when has capacity been the benchmark? Does Premiership ready = size of the stadium capacity? Nope!

One of the primary reasons for building the new stadium was to provide a stadium that complied with the Premiership's fairly strict guidelines as Griffin Park (the current stadium) was no-where near compliant and would cost an awful lot (if even possible) and significantly reduce capacity to make it compliant. The main problem was complying with the media facilities.

A choice had to be made, build a bigger stadium further out or a smaller one closer to their current home—given the scarcity of available locations, a compromise was made on its current location but at a reduced capacity to what they ideally wanted. 17,500k capacity, is as you say not much bigger than the current one c12k, but let's be honest here, the media revenues for a Premiership club far outweigh the gate receipts at most clubs. The difference of income between a ground capacity of 12k and 17,500k is a rain drop compared to the media revenues. Add in that even if they were to get into the Premiership, they'd probably still struggle to fill even a 17,500k capacity stadium in that area and you can begin to understand the logic behind the compromise that was made.

 

[IndoMike]

Really hope that the Bees don't get relegated to Div 1 thus devaluing any possible transfer fee for our asset.
Agree about your new stadium capacity: extra sponsorship, TV money and prize money would more than compensate for that in the Premier League.

 

[BerksBee]

Brentford now 2 points above the relegation zone and sinking like a stone since their manager Smith left. Looks like he was the key to their success.

Looks like..? For an outsider looking in, that would be rational and logical conclusion to come up with, so I don't really blame you for holding that view. Plenty of our own fans have come up with the same conclusion.

It is however, respectfully, wrong. The reasons for why (it's wrong) are lengthy and convoluted and I don't think you'd thank me for going into it in depth in a thread about Ollie Watkins, so I won't. But what I will say is, that that bad run started under Smith and simply continued under Frank, it could just as easily have happened with Smith there. A combination of injuries to key players, bad luck, kamikaze defending, silly defensive errors and 'teams working out how to beat us, and us not adapting to that' conspired to produce a pretty poor run of form.

Bear in mind our owners a gambler, the side was built (with a limited budget and minimal squad depth) to play expansive, attacking football and score goals. Take out 3 or 4 key members of the midfield/front 3 through injury (Watkins was one of the injured!), add in stupid and silly defensive mistakes and sides putting 10 men behind the ball after nicking goals through set pieces can produce a pretty poor run of results and that's what happened.

Very little of it has anything to do with Thomas Frank's managerial ability.

 

[BerksBee]

Really hope that the Bees don't get relegated to Div 1 thus devaluing any possible transfer fee for our asset./QUOTE]
Ummm....!

It can't be ruled out I'm afraid. The Championship is a ruthless division and no side has any god given right to be any good.

Personally, I don't think it will happen, but an awful lot depends on what players leave and stay in January. If anyone offered us £15-20m in January for Watkins I suspect he'll be gone, but I'm not sure anyone will, his form has been quite up and down recently. His big toe injury clearly hasn't helped and it's taking him time to get back up to full capacity. It hasn't helped that he's coming back into a side with a lack of belief and confidence either after having suffered a pretty poor run of results.

What his variable performances do show I think is just how tough the championship is as a division and how good some of the sides are that are in it.

It really must question mark his ability to be able to step up to a higher level.

 

[IndoMike]

Looks like..? For an outsider looking in, that would be rational and logical conclusion to come up with, so I don't really blame you for holding that view. Plenty of our own fans have come up with the same conclusion.

It is however, respectfully, wrong. The reasons for why (it's wrong) are lengthy and convoluted and I don't think you'd thank me for going into it in depth in a thread about Ollie Watkins, so I won't. But what I will say is, that that bad run started under Smith and simply continued under Frank, it could just as easily have happened with Smith there. A combination of injuries to key players, bad luck, kamikaze defending, silly defensive errors and 'teams working out how to beat us, and us not adapting to that' conspired to produce a pretty poor run of form.

Bear in mind our owners a gambler, the side was built (with a limited budget and minimal squad depth) to play expansive, attacking football and score goals. Take out 3 or 4 key members of the midfield/front 3 through injury (Watkins was one of the injured!), add in stupid and silly defensive mistakes and sides putting 10 men behind the ball after nicking goals through set pieces can produce a pretty poor run of results and that's what happened.

Very little of it has anything to do with Thomas Frank's managerial ability.

As you say, my conclusion is shared by many : a successful, bedded in manager probably popular with the players leaves and the new guy comes in. That is not a criticism of the new guy, who clearly will need time to make his mark - it's more like praise for Smith for the good work he did at Brentford. I didn't know that the run of bad results had already started with Smith and would be grateful if you could provide me with the stats. If you're right, might that also have been related to the rumours about Smith leaving for Villa a few weeks bEfore he did actually leave, thus unsettling the team a little?
I think Brentford will be safe, since the team definitely has goals in it, but the dream of PL football is still a long way off. At least you can dream it! We dream of Div 1 !!
As I've said before, I don't think many if any City fans have bad feelings about the Bees : it was just your emphasis on being a special club that peeved some of us. But I guess every fan thinks their team is special, even Plymuff . City is a small club and always will be, but there is a lot we can be proud of and nothing to be ashamed of.
Good luck for you and good luck for us.
Cheers.

 

[andrew p long]

For anyone with Sky Sports, Brentford’s game live on Sky Sports football this afternoon on the red button

 

[Long Lost Bee]

For anyone with Sky Sports, Brentford’s game live on Sky Sports football this afternoon on the red button

On the bench.

 

[StroudGrecian]

On the bench.

Do you think that significant, LLB?