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.
Great assessment on the Bees recruitment,its mostly been a pleasure watching them play over the last few years win lose or draw and its all thanks to one man(our best bit of recruitment) our owner, lifelong Bees fan Mathew Benham.
Paul – Thanks for your views, always shrewd and perceptive. Our transfer dealings are exactly as you state, with perhaps Gavin Whyte being the only youngster ready made for first team action.
I was lucky, or unlucky, to watch the whole match live and for the first hour of this encounter fumed away at the seemingly complete lack of interest being shown by many of our players as the Brentford players carved opening after opening. Brentford’s play from the first kick off saw them go forward immediately, no backward pass here with a hopeful ball launched forwards. No, an attack that saw a shot fizz past Etheridge’s left hand post with our keeper stranded in just 16 seconds. And their second goal came within one minute of the City’s second half restart. If Mr.Harris did give the team a bit of a rocket at the interval, our lot did not heed his words.
There really were some wretched performances. Mendez-Laing, Murphy and Hoilett, before his early departure, should all be deposited in the departure lounge for their inactivity in defensive duties caused huge problems for the back four who were having a tough time in any event. And truthfully, that trio were really no better going forward apart from one Hoilett effort.
I do not recall in recent times ever having to rage at any of our players as much as I did last evening, but I could see one hell of a hammering coming our way before the first of the above named trio was hauled off to be replaced by Madine. An improvement immediately took place. Pack (what a shame he is so slow) struck a well worked goal in stunning fashion, and Ward missed a sitter, and the Bees were anxious in that last half hour. But in truth, we deserved nothing from the game because of our abject beginning.
I am sure Mr.Harris learnt a lot from last evening’s outing. And if the recent report is true that we are looking at a 21 year old Spanish Under 21 international, then I can well understand it following last night’s debacle. But haven’t we a young 16 year old in our ranks worth an outing.
But there is another issue. We have now played five matches under the new regime, all starting with two wingers, a la Warnock. When under the cosh as we were last night, it would surely have been more prudent if change was needed, and it really was, to bring on Ralls, or Vaulks, or both to stabilise events. Saturday’s team selection will be interesting.
I had the misfortunate to see the entire game live, and share with BJA a sense of frustration and even anger at the Cardiff performance. Yet, Mr Warnock has claimed that the current side is good enough to win immediate promotion. What we see is not what we’re told, rather like the Hans Christian Anderson tale of the emperor’s clothes. It is also rather unbecoming of Mr Warnock (what might be called “catty”) to state what he did, since it saddles Neil Harris with the blame if we do not go up and exonerates Mr Warnock if we do. To revive morale our current manager needs to manufacture something better for the game against Leeds on Saturday and then start building his own team ASAP
Kind regards
Thank you, Paul and BJA.
Intended watching the whole game behind the “red button” on Sky but our performance was so poor and the television coverage so awful that I decided to give the second-half a miss.
Mr. Harris seems to be making the sae mistakes as Mr. Warnock but perhaps he will learn in time. Perhaps he will realise that the wingers we have are not up to the system we are playing. Surely we need more legs in mid-field?
Couldn’t agree more about our recruitment policy, Paul. Perhaps it would be more difficult to persuade any young French footballers to come to Cardiff but is anyone convinced we have the scouting system to find such players.
Not much sign yet of Harris giving youth a chance but it is still early days.
I think our good record against Leeds may be put to the test on Saturday but we can hope that “leeds will start falling apart again”.
Thank you for your kind comments about Brentford’s recruitment policy. Apart from getting right and left mixed up with Benrahma and Mbeumo (both play as inverted wingers), it was spot on.
You were correct to highlight the fact that we can now afford better players. We spent £26m last summer but this was financed by no less than £60m incoming fees from outgoing transfers in 2019. Indeed, we needed two of our more expensive signings (Jansson and Pinnock) to withstand your aerial assault in the last 30 minutes. Last season we’d have drawn or even lost that game.
We have some very tough fixtures coming up (Fulham and West Brom next) but if by January we are still in touch with the play-offs, we have no need to sell anyone and have the money for some much-needed squad strengthening.
I was surprised to read that some of your fans were doubting Neal Harris. He did a great job at Millwall and seems an ideal fit for Cardiff. And he wasn’t responsible for Warnock’s dodgier signings. I fully expect both of us (along with more than half the division!) to be battling it out for a play-off place. Sadly, I think West Brom and Leeds are too far ahead to be caught, though of course it would be hilarious to see Leeds fall apart again.
Interesting comments above concerning Brentfords transfer policies. Brentford under Mr Benham put together a plan for the club that has been 8 or 9 years in the making and has resulted in a healthy club, a new stadium to move into next summer and the recruitment of ever more valuable and skilful players. Mbeuno, Benrahma, Watkins, are a feared forward line and they are all in their early twenties along with Norgaard, Jensen, Da Silva, Pinnock, Henry, Raya (a great buy) and several B team players who have been drafted into the first team squad and are gaining experience as the season progresses. The club is firing on all cylinders and the football is entertaining, exciting and often breathtaking to watch. As a supporter who attended his first match in 1955 on my fathers shoulders, this is a great time to be a supporter.
Thanks to everyone for their replies and especially to the Brentford fans who have given their views – if you don’t mind I’ll come to you after I’ve replied to the City fans.
BJA and Colin, you both mention something that I’ve come around to believing lately, our wingers’ general level of performance is not good or consistent enough to justify the policy of playing with two of them. I’m afraid Mendez-Laing drives me to distraction these days – at the back end of last season, he was looking a serious performer at Premier League level, yet this season, at a lower level, you just don’t know what you’re going to get from him from one game to the next – that said, I do know that he is a one good game in three or four merchant.
Anthony, I agree with you entirely about what Neil Warnock said on Sunday – as I said in my piece, I can only think of, maybe, the Forest game where we’ve looked like what I would expect a top six to look like, so if this really is a top two squad, what does it say about the man who was in charge for three quarters of our games so far?
Colin, there, self evidently, wasn’t the will to prioritise foreign recruitment under our last manager – I’m probably missing one or two, but, off the top of my head, I can only think of Glatzel and Damour who came from abroad under Neil Warnock.
Finally, it’s great to see three opposition supporters take the time to reply to a blog about a team they don’t support. Firstly, I’d like to address a point that Chris makes about Neil Harris. I’ll use what I think about him and suggest that maybe this is the reason for any feelings that it is a wrong or underwhelming appointment. The stats of Harris’ last team make depressing reading to this Cardiff fan – I bridle a bit at the common use of the term “plays football the right way” when referred to passing sides because, surely, the best way to play is to mix things up so you are not only effective at one of a long ball approach or a more patient, passing game? That said, having spent the best part of the last decade watching Cardiff sides play “the wrong type of football” (that is different versions of Warnockball), I’m wary that Neil Harris is going to give us more of the same. I would qualify that mind by saying that I’m hopeful that he will have more to offer than that and I’ve been impressed by both his attitude and what he has had to say since he took over.
As for your club, I must admit to a degree of envy because reading Hobbo and Ratcatcher’s comments about how it’s been a pleasure watching their side in recent years just reminds me that the only pleasure I get from most of our games lately comes from the result!
One thing I was sad to see from Brentford mind, was their decision to scrap their Academy a few years ago, but I suppose that makes more sense than our situation where we pay for one for the last eight years or so and almost completely ignore the players coming through it when it comes to first team football – although, hopefully, that will change under our new manager who has talked a good game on the subject and I was heartened that he watched the first half of Saturday’s under 18 match just before we played Barnsley.
I’ll end by echoing the hope that Leeds will cock it up again, while wishing you the best of luck for the rest of the season.
Brentford scrapped the Academy because it hadn’t produced any (IIRC) first team player in all the time of its existence, and both the Manchester Premier clubs picked up a player each (for peanuts) which is pretty disheartening to me as a mere fan, let alone to a fan/owner who has poured £millions into the club; the system plainly wasn’t working and now we have a B team, several of whom have made their first team debuts in the calendar years 2018 and 2019, one of whom (Mepham) was sold to Bournemouth for an 8 figure fee, and they play ‘friendly’ – as in not in a league format – against some of Europes best known teams’ reserve sides
If this system gets us up into the Premier (hopefully) by the end of this season – preferably – or next, or even if it doesn’t but it still means we watch exhilarating if sometimes frustrating football – it will have been full justification/exoneration for scrapping the Academy
A little ps to an earlier post here, and I’m not entirely comfortable mentioning it, but there WAS another well-documented example of Warnock recruiting a young man from the French Ligues
Best of luck for the season, apart from the return fixture of course!
Point taken about Emiliano Sala, and welcome to Mauve and Yellow Army, but I stick by my argument that our recruitment department policy (assuming we’ve had one!) has failed miserably when it’s compared to yours. As for your decision to scrap the Academy, I’m not knocking it – in fact I completely see the logic. It’s probably a case of heart ruling the head for me because, having grown up watching Cardiff sides with a strong nucleus of locally produced players, I find the recent complete overlooking of our Academy products when it comes to first team football both sad and frustrating. I’d also argue that it is also completely counter productive on logical grounds for a couple of reasons – first, it will eventually, if it hasn’t done so already, lead to a situation where talented youngsters and those who have their best interests at heart will think that there is no point signing for Cardiff and, second, when you look at our history in the past century as a Football League club, it is certainly debatable whether the current policy has seen an improvement in City’s standing despite it costing them a great deal of money.