A SWARM OF BEES - Brentford FC.

[OneMoreGame]

Absolutely devastating performance, all the boys felt my anger. We didn't play well at all, we didn't have ANY luck and nothing came out as we wanted. We're winless in 6 games. Nobody wants to flew back to Bulgaria as we knew how we are going to be welcomed. We are going to be asked where are our hearts and balls and will have to get the insults by the whole country.

The only thing that we can do is to fight back next time and try to achieve more than that, try to get the believe in our team once again by the supporters, their love. And this must happen with display on the field.

Some of the players will never play for our team again as we're going to call more and more younger players and think not just for the next match, but for the next generation.

Our next challenge will be the Nations League. Last time Bulgaria was promoted from League C and now we have the tougher task to play against way better teams. This is our group and our task is to avoid relegation, but again I aim higher.




GROUP STAGE




We entered the tournament as the weakest side and we go out of the tournament as the weakest side. No great story, no fairytale, nothing special. Holland didn't have the best of time and are also out of the Euro as we pack our stuff and flew back home. We must forget fast this nightmare and focus on our next mission. Here is how everything else went after our departure.



Some really dramatic results, but the current World Champions conquer another peak and get revenge for the Euro 2016 fiasco. France winning with penalties (Ronaldo subbed only in the 60 minute). Before that England eliminated Spain only to do the most English thing and screw up in the 109 minute against Portugal. In the other half of the tree France dominated all his opponents (beating Belgium 4-0 at the semis, wow). Mbappe was the goalscorer of the tournament with 10 goals, winning also best player and best young player! All hail the king!

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

​

Comments:
Jedd95 - thanks, soon we will know.

 

[TaymuirFC]

Ouch. I've never fancied taking a national team on but dang that's one tough job with Bulgaria.

Your Brentford career so far is on the contrary. Absolute domination in the Championship. I'm sure you'll have enough to keep above relegation next year - although it will be tough.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Chaotic Summer (EP 13)

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After the beating we took at Euro 2020 I was determined to make another big forum with the team as top aim. Surprisingly three teams decided to offer me a interview. Holland which didn't have the best run, Italy, who also didn't perform as they wanted aaaaand FRANCE, the current European & World champions. I'm man of my word and declined all these opportunities, I have a job to do with the Bulgaria squad. However the feeling is great that someone sees the potential in my skills even that the results were awful.

Trying to keep Brentford best players is one of the hardest things at the moment as many teams are trying to grab some of the best players of the rising team. The manager told the press that he is not willing to say goodbye to no one of the main core of the team no matter the price. Many offers from other Premier League sides were rejected. Josh Dasilva, Said Benrahma, Rico Henry & Henrik Dalsgaard proved to be loyal as they also showed no interest in the offers, also gaining the respect & love of the fans.

But then came the offer from Hertha to which Brentford couldn't say no. €35.5 millions for Mads Roerslev, The young wingback was one of the best players in the team, winning Young Player of The Year award and providing 10 assist through the season. However €35 mil. for a 20 year old kid is too much money not to be taken. The Danish player have great potential, however our job is also to have profit in the end of the year. With great remorse we accepted the offer. €25.5 in-front and the other 10 millions within the next year.

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Also we sold Joel Valencia for €2 millions to as he didn't have the needed quality for the Premier League. Before the end of last season we sealed the selling of Emiliano Marcondes for €5.5 to Seatle. We will try not to sell anybody else from the team.

We had already a couple of new players added to the first team - Isak (ST), Tibbling (MC), Andersson (RB), Semedo (DM), Fruchtl (GK) and a lot (really a lot) of money still in the bank. Brentford has a good spirited team that maybe is more than enough to escape the relegation. However the manager saw an opportunity to build really strong collective to not only fight for relegation but something more.

First - a lot of new scouts, psychos and coaches were recruited so the team can be competitive in the league and still we were only above the average. We need to gain some reputations so the best coaches would come to us - this will happen with time and results.

We had a couple of targets in the summer but because of our transfer policy (not giving expensive transfer fees and to make profit out of every player) we were unable to accept the demanding of the selling teams. We really wanted Pionte Sisto to join us, but Celta wanted €30 mil. for him even though they were relegated. Another one of our targets - Jeremie Boga wanted 6 milion per year as salary even that we barely accepted the €15 milion price tag. Great players, but we need to concentrate on the calculations and not to spend foolishly (as Fulham IRL for example).

So we searched the market only for special deals that fit our strategy and also players which can be useful to us. Udinese Calcio got relegated and soon all of their players were on the market.

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FRANCISCO SIERRALTA (DC) was the first player to be added to our squad. We used the tough situation that Udinese was into and got the promising Chilean for just €1.1 which is absurdly low even by our standarts. Great deal even though we didn't really needed another centre back.​

Next we needed some cover some cover for the spot that Joel Valencia left. Our main target was Marko Pjaca, but he chose the french side Rennes. After the tough and unsuccessful negotiations with Sisto, Boga & El Ghazi we decided not to buy a player for this position, rather we will get a loan and decide by the player's performance if he is worthy.

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CHRIS WILLOCK (AMR/AML) is coming from Benfica as a loan player for 1 year with the optional price of €5 million at the end of it. He had an okay season at Huddersfield last year, nothing special but the guy has potential. Everything here will be performance based. If he doesn't provide, we won't pay the price and we can buy someone else in the winter if he is worst than expected. His salary is small, so this is also risk calculated.​

We have exactly 2 players for each position that we use in our midfield (mezzala, box-to-box & deep lying playmaker), however we brought Alfa Semedo as a ball winning midfielder as we will face much tougher teams this year, so why not bring another one to have a plan B. Preston didn't managed to get promoted and some of their players were not happy about it so it was our chance to attack.

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BEN PEARSON (DM, MC) is one of the best midfielders in the Championship so when the opportunity came, we didn't hesitate. Again coming for less than his value price on the market we signed with the aggressive midfielder for just €4.1 million. It gets a little bit overcrowded in our midfield but we will manage the situation.

And as we thought we are done with the transfer market this summer are scouts couldn't believe their eyes. Tilo Kehrer was requesting a transfer as he doesn't get enough chances at the french champions - PSG and the sum was laughable.

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The German national TILO KEHRER (DC) is signed from the french champions PSG for €6 millions. The player gets a buy out clause of €101 millions and will make our defense more solid. Of course there will be some problems with the playing time of the other defenders but we will try to avoid confrontations with some loan deals.

So we sold only 1 of our player and got four players with great potential for just €11.2 millions. Great stuff dealing with our finances and at the end of the day again we have more than €20 mil. in the bank ready if we are in a tough spot in the winter.

CONTINUING IN THE NEXT POST ​

 

[OneMoreGame]

Also we used our method of getting talents in the club (as we don't have a youth intake) by snapping up the best free youngster out there. Toni Moya was signed from Atletico alreday, Tomash Schiro from Internazionale. We also snap up two great talents released from PSG & Manchester United - Isaac Karamoko (18, striker) and Luca Ercolani (20, central defender). Also we get Hakim El Mokeddem, Algerian attacking midfielder from Rennes for just 200k. We also bought one of Iceland biggest talents - Kristofer Ingi Kristinsson for €1M, but he left him at his club Grenoble for a year long loan.

Another big part of our strategy as a club is to loan most of our players so they can play and develop in the big leagues (not playing U21 football).

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So the bigger names here are Jan Zamburek going to Sunderland (finally in the Championship), Luca Racic going to AGF (Denmark), Mads Sorensen (central defenders who would probably stayed with us if we didn't bought Sierralta & Kehrer) going to Houston Dynamo. New signings - Tony Moya going to Vallecano and others. All of our loans are with the condition that we don't pay anything of the player's salary and he is important part of his new club. Probably we will have some more player going out on a loan, but this is for now.

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We had a really great camp in Portugal, playing against local sides.We experimanted with different formations and partnership. Also almost all the new boys had the chance to play with his team mates (Only Kehrer didn't as he is injured for two weeks). The only game that we lost was against the MLS All-Stars, however great pre-season.

Our schedule for August is not the nicest as we play as it follows:

Burnley (A)

Liverpool (H) - first match at our new stadium.
West Ham (H)
Luton (H) - Micky Mouse Cup
Manchester City (A)

Soon the fun begins and we will fight for our survival!

Thanks for reading & hope you enjoy it!​

Comments:

TaymuirFC - It's tougher with the national teams, especially with a small team, that you don't have so many good players. Hope we don't get ourselves in the relegation battle, but we will have to see.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - The New Beehive (EP 14)

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Starting the first season in Premier League for more than 70 years and we also have a new home! Hopefully the Brentford Community Stadium is about to see great wins for his team! Tough fixures for August, and even tougher when you're coming from the Championship. We need to fight for our place in the league and also do it without breaking our entertaining style of play! We will have to see if we will need to adjust our play to the other teams. Let the fun begin!

Burnley vs. Brentford

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Our first match in the Premier League wasn't exactly a classic, but a point at Turf Moore is a success for me. Really dull match, I started with the boys that gave us the title run last year with not a single new signing on the pitch. Boring match with only a few chances for both teams. We defended really well and took the point! Pontus Jansson with the POTM award.

Fun Fact: Chris Wood apparently had won Top Goalscorer in the Premier League for the last season with 23 goals, what a time to be alive!

The first match at our new home - The Brentford Community Stadium was against non other than the mighty team of Liverpool. Great spectacle for the fans, but tough to watch for me.

Brentford vs. Liverpool

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Aggh! We almost beat them! Great show for the fans as the first match at the new stadium and will be remembered forever! We open up the score in the 11 minute with a great goal by our right back Henrik Dalsgaard and the fans went crazy! Nobody expect us to perform like this! In the 67 minute Alfa Semedo does the thing that was brought into our squad, to terrorize our opponents, how ever he does it in our own box - penalty! RAYA makes a save and the a second one after the follow up! The stadium is shaking! However in the last minutes of the game Firmino scores, but the fans are happy! They saw us giving one of the best teams out there a proper fight! Our goalkeeper (Raya) wins POTM, however all of the defense was really good.

Debuts for Semedo, Andersson & Pearson!

Brentford vs. West Ham

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We needed something from that match as our next fixture is against Manchester City and this was the best moment for us to make our first win in the Premier League. The positive thing was that we dominated the whole game having so many more chances than our opponents, but they get 2 quick goals and we take the L. Tried to push for a draw in the end, but only managed to score once by Bryan Mbeumo. Our attackers don't score the goals that we need! Frustrated about the outcome, we were a lot better, but this happens often in the great game of football.

Next we went against Luton Town in the EFL Second round fixture and we needed to win and gain some belief in ourselves.

Brentford vs. Luton Town

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Finally we win! There is big difference between championship & premier league sides and you can see it yourself. A lot of the new guys get their first starts in the club. Isak scores his first for the club and so does Thilo Kehrer! Big game for Fosu who gets, 1 goal, 1 assist & POTM. There was no chance for the opponents as they even scored with one of their two shots on goal. Great performance, we need to play like this in the league as well. (Actually we played well in all 3 matches, just didn't get the wins).

Again - no luck in the draw and in the next round we will play against Liverpool. However they escaped once from the defeat against us, maybe next time we will punish them!

Manchester City vs. Brentford

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Almost the same match as the previous (with Luton), but this time we were in the shoes of the loosing team. Tried to change the scheme and play with 3 center backs, but we received two goals in the first 30 minutes and this plan is out of the window. We took the game too defensively and were punished because of that. This time we deserved to loose. In the final minutes Isak gets another goal for the club, but Watkins is nowhere near the form of the last season. We need his goals.

Player of the Month

DAVID RAYA​

1 clean sheet, 1 saved penalty and two great performances against Burnley & Livepool are enough for our goalkeeper to win the award. He has potential to be great keeper and never let us down in the whole time I'm in charge of the team. This year we will need him more than ever because of the position we are in.

Maybe the other player who performed okay was Bryan Mbeumo, but again the main player from last season need to do better!


LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT
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Just two points from the first 4 matches and we are in the bottom of the table with the other teams that came from Championship. Actually I'm not so disappointed as we get 1 point from Liverpool and played against Man City but we need to turn our chances into goals, and our good performance into wins. It's my mistake that I've tried to change the scheme against City and tried new things in the match. Hopefully we win our first games next month as we have 3 really crucial games in September and one cup match against Liverpool. In the final day of the transfer window we snap Cameron Bortwhick-Jackson for free, just to sell him in a year maybe.

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Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Stinging Bees (EP 15)

bzz-bzz-bzz

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There were some positives after the first month in the our Premier League life but we had only 2 points and were sitting at the 18th place. However the hopes of the fans for better performance were due to the better schedule this month. This is the time to show if we have the strength to survive. Everyone in the club are waiting for the first win in the league.

This is the first time we have a clean bill and all of our players are fully fit to play, even though up to this point of the season there were just minor injuries and the players were not available for a week or so.

Brentford vs. Brighton

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YES! Our first win, and what a way to do it! We went ahead in the score after brilliant set piece and our captain once again showed what a areal force he is! After that we received two really quick goals and all the fans remembered the match with West Ham last month and how we lost, is it a deja vu? Also Nedyalkov scoring against his country gaffer? Maybe I'm not calling you up anymore. Mathias Jensen didn't think that way and scored absolute piece of art from free kick! The match was even after the goal, but then came the last minute and one of the most exciting transfers got us the win sending the crowd in pure delirium! Thilo Kehrer grabs the first win in the league. The match will be remembered forever! And what a performance by Jensen.

1 great goal, 2 assists and finding the form from the last season!

Leeds vs. Brentford

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Two in a row! We started the match really well, and Jensen provides another one of his deadly passes to Ollie Watkins, who scores his first goal for the season (also winning POTM). First of many, I hope. We dominated through the whole of the match, but Leeds showed their teeth and equalized after a corner. We needed the win against a newly promoted team if we want to be successful in the PL, so we pushed for a goal in the end. Struijk, who came only 2 minutes before the goal, gifted us the 3 points after a scramble in the penalty area. Really important win, again coming in the last minutes of the game!

Next we played against Liverpool in the next round of the EFL Cup.

Liverpool vs. Brentford

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For the second time this season we play against Liverpool, this time they are not with their full potential, but we also rotated and used most of the new boys in the club, alongside some of the players that are not involved so much and need to prove themselves in the team. The home team (1st in PL) get ahead two times (Hakimi goal was beauty), but we managed to even the result both times through Pearson (debut goal) and Isak! We had a goal overruled by VAR and we were the better team for at least one of the halves. However - a draw so we go to penalties!

Brewster - goal / Isak - goal
Oxlade - goal / Fosu - goal
Bernat - goal / Pearson - goal
Lallana - goal / Semedo - miss
Hakimi - goal

The luck wasn't on our side, however I'm not disappointed, in fact we didn't lose against Liverpool in a second game this season. I wish we get the win so I can use more often the reserves and keep the happiness in the team. Our main focus stays the survival in the league.

Fun Fact: Livepool bought Bernat for €50 millions and Bentancur for €80 milions. Madness! Also they've got Tonali (€35M), Izzo (€40M) and obviously Hakimi on loan. Sold only Origi,Milner & Wilson.

Newcastle vs. Brentford

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We didn't start the match as we should and were trailing after just six minutes after brilliant run by Almiron who get away from 3 of our defenders. 1-0. However after the goal, the team woke up and started playing! We equalized before the half time with another goal by Alexander Isak, who is starting to enjoy his life in the PL. After the break we just kept on attacking, Newcastle didn't have any chances in the second half. We showed something that helped us a lot in the previous season - goals from set pieces. We have great areal threats in all of our center backs and BAM - 2 goals from Thilo Kehrer (also winning POTM)! Great feeling that the new boys in the club contribute from the beginning. Also 3 wins in a row for a promoted club is great achievement!

Player of the Month

THILO KEHRER​

Winning us two matches with his 3 goals this month and also performing really well at the back, Kehrer wins the Award this month. Absolute beast, who quickly got his place in the starting XI, even though the other defenders suffer from that (Jeanvier is unhappy that his place is taken). If he performs like this in his first month, don't know what to expect in the next games! Remainder that we got him for just €6 million.​

Alexander Isak (2 goals) also had a great month, Mathias Jensen is returning his form (1 goal, 3 assists) , Pontus Jannson is rock solid at the back (1 goal, 1 assist, 7.30 rating for the month). Overall great month for everybody, but these are the guys that stand out the most.​

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT
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A lot better view of the table this month as we are in the top half of it with 11 points! I can call that a perfect month even though we were eliminated in the EFL Cup. 3 wins from 3 matches and confidence is a lot higher. However we should not fool ourselves and must take every match as our lives depends on it. More than happy with the team position and if we somehow managed to end the season around the half of the table it will be prefect (but first we should aim to survive).

Leeds is struggling with only 1 point, QPR doing better after beating them in the direct match. Liverpool is first and we're the only team that took them points which is nice.

The board agreed that we need to expand the stadium capacity as we sold all the tickets for matches so far, even though we're playing on a new ground. This will take 1 year and will allow 2000 more people to enjoy our great football.

Some of the new players are performing really well, others not so much. Andersson is not playing well so he could be a starter, Sierralta & Willock don't even have chances to play. Tibbling, Semedo and Pearson are playing okay and are showing potential.

Jeanvier is not happy about his lack of playing time, soon the same will happen to Pinnock I assume, but how I'm supposed to give them minutes as my best players are the two center backs.

Will have a separate update about the UEFA Nations League with Bulgaria.

Next month schedule:

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Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - What's All The Buzz (EP 16)

The flight continues.

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The mood is a lot better with the 3 wins in a row and October comes with just 3 games for the club, but tough ones. Again we have no injuries in the team which is really helping us playing with the best we can. Some of the new guys need to start showing their quality or they won't last long in the team. Also some of the "old" dogs are raring to go in a match. We have enough team to play in the European cups, however we fight against relegation. Also we have €20M in the bank if we find something really attractive for the winter transfers.

Brentford vs. Wolves
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Really even match (no joke, look at the score). Wolves' team sold a lot of their best players (Neves, Jota), but also both pretty good replacements (stealing us Pionte Sisto). We had goal overruled by VAR again and we had the better chances in the game, but didn't turned them into goals. However I'm pleased with the draw, also continuing our unbeaten run with one more game. Josh Dasilva with a great game, winning the POTM.

Pontus Jansson was injured and will miss the rest of the month, so we will rotate at the back.

Norwich vs. Brentford

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A series of unfortunate events led to this draw. We were the better team for the whole game, missing opportunity after opportunity. First we receive an unbelievable goal as their central defender scores a top bin screamer from 25 meters (he has an attribute of 6 for long shots). Benrahma gets a knock, on his place comes Eliasson, who gets injured also only just 2 minutes. We pushed with everything we had and continued to miss sitters. In the stoppage time Tim Krul gets us a early Christmas gift as he drops the ball from one of our crosses in the foot of Alexander Isak, who taps it! Strange game, we deserved even to win, however we got a lucky draw.

As we didn't have any injuries - now we have Pontus missing for one more game, Eliasson injured for a month (he is injured most of the time in the club) and Thilo Kehrer just got sick and will miss the game against Manchester United.

Brentford vs. Manchester United

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What a result! Comeback versus Man Utd and most importantly we beat them fair and square, beating them in all the important stats (shots/chances). Great result and our trio BMW is leading us to glory! They open up the score with a tap in from Cavani, after shot to the side bar. In the last seconds of the first half they clear the ball from their goal-line and we understood that the devil is not so black. With small changes in our game we dominated the second half! Watkins (POTM) stole a ball from Maguire and scored an easy goal to even the result! Benrahma shows his tricks and after eliminating two opponents puts the ball in the near post! After that we defended really well, with Pinnock & Jeanvier showing their quality when they are needed! Absolutely amazing result! 6 games unbeaten!

Player of the Month

HENRIK DALSGAARD​

After an okay season last year when we played in the shadow of the young Mads (again providing 6 assist through the year), now Henrik so playing a lot greater part in our team! It's not a strange thing that our 3 winners of the award this season are part of the defensive line as they are the key to our success. Dalsgaard finishes the month with only 1 assist, however he played really well in all the matches and our new signing Andersson could not get playing time because of the fine form of the Danish player!

Watkins was the vital player in the win against Man Utd, all of our defenders are playing really well, hopefully that will continue!

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT
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Another great month for our Brentford FC and we even go up with one place, far away from the danger zone! The supporters start to feel that we can deliver something special this season! Another "big dog" falls into our trap, we will try to continue like this for as long as we could. If the next 2 months are as good as the previous 2, we will play without any concerns in the spring. Only the time can tell that. Undefeated in SIX games now! Great run and we are playing our local rivals QPR next!

At the bottom we see the two of the newly promoted teams, I imagined that Leeds will do a lot better in the league. Newcastle, Norwich and Burnley are also struggling for points. At the top - Liverpool is winning match after match and already has 8 point lead!

It's sad to see that two of our main players last season that we sold are not even playing. Sergi Canos is put in the doghouse in the Newcastle U23 and Mads Roerslev is not played a single match for Hertha.

Alfa Semedo injured himself in training in the end of the month and will miss at least two matches for us, joining Eliasson in the infirmary.
Next month schedule will see us not moving from London (also playing only London teams) for the whole November:

QPR (H)
Arsenal (A)
Tottenham (H)
Crystal Palace (A)


Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - London Calling (EP 17)

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Brentford is performing more than well in their first flight season for over a 70 years as they are sitting in the 8th place with 16 points from 10 matches. The busy schedule in the Premier League is only starting so we need to be fully focused and not to fool ourselves over a couple of nice results. This month schedule is tough with playing against Arsenal & Tottenham. We start with two injuries - Alfa Semedo, who will miss the whole month and Eliasson, who can probably return in the last match.

All month will be LONDON DERBIES, but we start with a local derby versus QPR, who took seven goals last time we met.

Brentford vs. QPR
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Didn't score 7 this time, but we are more than happy with that result. Two fast goals in the first half as the BMW returned to our attack and again didn't disappoint! Ollie Watkins scoring in a consecutive match and Mbeumo with 1 goal, 1 assist & POTM display! We dominated through the whole game and could have scored more but this is more than enough. Also beating our main rival (as Fulham are not in this division) for the third time, scoring 13 goals in these 3 matches. Pontus will miss the next match with an injury, nothing serious. Kings of West London, baby!

Arsenal vs. Brentford

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OH MY! Another upset and this time away from home! Vintage display by our defenders as we keep a clean sheet! Josh Dasilva (POTM) gave us the win with great long range goal, with Mbeumo providing him with an assist after he dribbled around two of Arsenal defenders! After the goal we had only one more chance and we defending for the rest of the game. Absolutely great result! With these kind of matches the fans believe we can fight for some place in the top half, however it's too early for this thoughts. So, Kings of North-West London maybe!

Brentford vs. Tottenham

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When we scored first with only 14 minutes played, I thought that it will be unbelievable to pull a win against Spurs, just after beating Arsenal. This time, even though that Spurs didn't attack us as much as Arsenal last match our defense didn't succeed and we allowed one goal, masterpiece by Correa who slalomed between our defenders in the first minutes of the second half. Before that Mathias Jensen gave us the lead with also very nice goal from the edge of the box. Another great display and we're
9 matches without loosing! Nobody believed that will actually happen as we were predicted to be relegated. Of course this can still happen but wow, what a run!

Bryan Mbeumo who performed really well in the last couple of matches is injured for 6 weeks, just before the Christmas busy program.

Crystal Palace vs. Brentford

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Cold shower! Actually we didn't deserve to lose with such a score, however 2 set pieces goals and 1 individual mistake by Pontus make the final score awful for us. We had some chances, but nothing more. We showed nothing compared to our performances in the past two months, don't know what happened. One of those matches, I guess. Not the best ending of a really good month. Hope that is just a bump on the road and not turning point for a series of loses.

Player of the Month

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BRYAN MBEUMO​

Doesn't matter if it's Championship or Premier League, Mbeumo is top player and it's playing really well! He finishes the month with 1 goal and 2 assist! With the constant changes in our attacking trio, Bryan is finding new role in playing on both wings when needed. Unfortunately for us before the last game of the month the Frenchman was injured in a training and will miss 6 weeks in the worst period of time.

Ollie Watkins is continuing his good performances, Jensen & Dasilva are really good duo in the midfield and our defense is still impressing!

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT

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We're moving up in the table for another month and found ourselves in the 6th place, just under another overachievers and our rivals - Watford! We managed to make a great run of 9 games without loosing before falling apart against Palace! Absolutely terrific performance and I'm really happy that we kept our style of attacking football even though we moved in bigger league!

Liverpool is marching with big steps for their first title in 30+ years. On the other end again we see Leeds and QPR. Really glad that we're performing way better than them and not struggling for points, but the wheel can turn really fast.

In the squad I'm happy with almost everybody - Andersson is not showing the things he was brought (he played awfully against Palace), Eliasson is always having some injuries (minor or not), Fross haven't scored in almost an year, even though he gets only a couple of minutes and I really want Alexander Isak to show his quality constantly not just in some of the games.

Next month is pretty busy, having 6 matches and there isn't a single easy one. We must try not to lose our momentum and continue with the great form.



Before continuing with December matches, the next episode will be focused on the performance of Bulgaria in the Nations League, where we are in a really tough group with Russia, Norway and Romania!

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Nations League 2020 (EP 18)

Trying to survive.

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After the big disappointment in the Euro 2020, we had the chance to gain our confidence back in the second edition of the Nations League. It's was a really good idea to scrap the friendly matches and introduce this new tournament so all the teams that are not in the power houses of Europe to have additional chance to qualify for a big forum. Although we didn't perform well at the Euros, the fans were delighted that their team once more were among the finalist of the tournament so not everybody was mad at us.

Bulgaria went up from League C to League B after winning his group last time, so we will be the team with the lowest rating in our Group. The local football association want us to battle against relegation. We have the toughest group facing the teams of Russia, Norway and Romania.

A lot of the "old dogs" that were part of the team in the last ten years were informed that they won't be needed anymore and we will try to develop more and more younger players and give them chance in the first team.
It was a good summer for a lot of the Bulgarian talents and some of them got good transfers which of course will contribute to the strength of the team. For the past year:

• Anton Nedyalkov was bought by Brighton and it's playing regularly at he left wingback.
• Stanislav Ivanov (AMR) & Valentin Antov (CB) were picked by Watford for €6M each, but have played only a couple of matches for the team.
• Martin Minchev (AML) was transfered in Lyon for €1M last year, didn't played at all and now is playing on loan for Troyes in League 1.
• Daniel Naumov (GK) got his big transfer in Sevilla but he is a second choice keeper.Kiril Despodov (AML/AMR) returned from loan to Cagliari and he is playing in every match this season.

We will try also a lot of new players that didn't have the chance to play for the national team and if they impress us, they can keep their spot.

Russia vs. Bulgaria

​

Ooookay, we tried to play attacking football again (as with Germany at the EUROs) and it's not our thing. Totally trashed. Russia got great squad but we should do a lot better. After this match we had a meeting with the group and told them this must not happen again or we are going to be called national traitors.

In the other match Norway beat Romania 2-1.

We had to do something so from this day forward we changed our 4-2-3-1 scheme with a lot of different variations of formations with 3 centre backs. Also we won't try to play, but rather we will destroy our opponents game and try to counter. Mine ideas for attacking free flowing football (as we play with Brentford) can't happen here.

Bulgaria vs. Norway

​

That's more like it! We converted into 3-4-3 counter-attacking formation against the full of brilliant wonderkids Norway and got quite a result! Our first win for 2020! Our box-to-box midfielder Simeon Slavchev put on a show to remember, scoring great long range goal, bossing the midfield and hitting twice the bar (POTM performance)! We were the better team in this match and deserved to win although they have the better players! Haaland, Joshua King & Odegaard were found in the pockets of our 3 central defenders!

Russia beat Romania 1-0.

There is a growing problem in the squad - our best players are wingers, but I want to play formation without using wingers so I try to play the wider players out of positions and I don't think that the players are fond of this, neither they play well individually, but they play better as a team in these kind of formations.

Romania vs. Bulgaria

​

Absolutely didn't deserved to lose this match as our goalkeeper Plamen Iliev made huge mistake for their second goal and this cost him his spot in the starting XI from the next match. The match was just made for us. With only a couple of chances, we managed to even the game with a header from Bozhidar Kraev. We could have scored another in the end of the game but our strikers obviously forgot how to score goals.

Norway - Russia 1:0

So basically after the first three matches Russia got 6 points, Norway - 6 pts., Romania with 3 pts. and Bulgaria also with 3. Anything can happen! We can finish first or last, nobody knows! Of course our groups was the most competitive, but we want a challenge!

CONTINUING IN THE NEXT POST​

 

[OneMoreGame]

CONTINUING FROM THE PREVIOUS POST




Norway vs. Bulgaria

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​

We went to get a point and almost got it, but this freak Haaland destroyed our hopes with a goal in the final minute of the game! Devastated! Once again we merit the play of the other team, but the score is not what we want! This time we played a lot more defensively (5 at the back) and Todor Nedelev (as AMC) played really well, not only he scored really nice goal, but made work a lot of work for the Norwegian defenders. Sadly, all the luck we had in the Euro Qualifications last year is turning back on us now and in the Euro 2020.

Russia - Romania 2-1.

This means we will have to beat Romania at home to survive.

Bulgaria vs. Russia

​

​

But we first to play Russia at home and BOOM, we win it with the final kick of the ball! The whole team put a great performance in the pouring rain to get another sweet memory of the nation! The goal was absolute beauty, however all the players deserved this for their great effort and to avenge the score from the last match against Russia! Malinov (POTM) & Slavchev were the best players for us as we again played 3-4-3. All the people in the stadium - fans, footballers, coaches, reporters were sure that the win meant we are almost staying in the same division and then we heard it on the audio system:

Romania - Norway 3:2

We can't believe it, not just because Romania have won. They were loosing 0-2 at halftime. Another punch we get from the football gods. So this means we need to beat them to avoid relegation, win and only win is okay for us.

Bulgaria vs. Romania

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Mmm yeah, the moment I saw that Romania turned the result against Norway, I knew we are in deep ****. The match was a copy of the first match - even game, without so many chances for both teams. The young winger Minchev scored to even the result and then came the last minute of the game. One of most experienced players in our team Dimitar Iliev went one on one versus they keeper aaaand he puts it wide. Awful. Romania celebrates their survival at the heart of the capital of Bulgaria and our supporters will have to swallow another bitter result and we are going again to League C in the Nations League.

​

The worst thing is that we are relegated with 7 points, loosing only because of the direct lost against Romania. Another thing is that we would have stayed up in 3 of the 4 groups in League B with these points, of course only not in ours. We had no luck at all loosing in the last minute, loosing games in which we are better and everything was against us, everything.

Best players for this tournament were Simeon Slavchev, Malinov and Todor Nedelev!

Fun Fact: All the matches in our group (except our loss versus Russia) were decided by just a goal. So imagine how close was that group.

On the good side was that we introduced a lot of young talents into the squad and started using a lot of the younger players more often. Our results were a lot better than the first half of the year, but we need to forget 2020 fast and turn our head to the next qualifications. We need to find a real goalscorer, someone who can finish our attacks, because not a single goal was scored by our striker. We even tried to play Despodov upfront, but it's not the thing for him.

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Christmas Carol (EP 19)

​

Last month was another success and The Bees we sitting comfortably at the sixth place, which will see them play some continental football if we finish there, but this seems like dream that could never happen. Nobody would not even think for such scenario in the start of the season, but here we are now in the beginning of December talking about possible League Europe finish. I'll be more than happy if we just avoid the battle for relegation, so anything else will be bonus. However our last match last month was the awful loss against Crystal Palace, so we should be really careful!

Mbeumo is injured and will miss almost the whole month. We have not the easiest schedule playing against Leicester (A), Chelsea (H), Watford (A), Everton (H), Bournemouth (H), Manchester United (A).
We will need to rotate a lot more this month as we have too many games.

Leicester vs. Brentford

​

Playing against the most underachieving team this season as the Foxes are just 2 points away from the relegation zone. We were the far better team in the first half and Ollie Watkins got us the lead after a beautiful set up by Benrahma! We controlled the match, but in the first minutes of the second half our left back Rico Henry got injured and we didn't have a person who is natural at his position, so Tilo Kehrer finished the match at LB, which was used by our opponents who didn't stop attacking down his wing. However we survived and got a precious win over the new manager of Leicester - Neil Lennon!
Pedro Chirivela was the POTM providing great passes from the back.

After the match we learn that another player from our initial starting XI is injured - Rico Henry will miss the whole month, disaster news. We have the young Dominic Thompson and the not-so-good-performing Adam Andersson who can play on this position.

Brentford vs. Chelsea

​

We eliminated Chelsea last year in one of the cups and they got the revenge this time. This time we were purely outplayed by the current PL Champions. However we missed a lot of chances, especially between their second and third goal and didn't play as bad as the scoreline shows. The third goal was the final nail it the comical match that Dalsgaard played. From one of the free kicks they hit the bar, the ball comes back in the feet of the Danish player, nobody around him and he BLASTS IT in our net.

The youngster Thompson played okay on the left back, but now we have problem on the right as Dalsgaard performance was too bad.

Watford vs Brentford

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OLLIE F`N WATKINS! What else can I say! Playing against the really well performing team of Watford which are led by Steven Gerarrd. Both teams decided to go for all the three points from the first kick of the ball and it was really entertaining! We turned the scoreline after we received a goal from corner kick and played with confidence after that. In the final quarter of the game they pushed us hard and got the goal they wanted. In the extra time of the match Ollie Watkins scored brilliant goal from outside the box into the far top corner to get the glory and the headlines in the papers! (The goal won Goal of The Month) What a performance by him! Sierallta made his debut for us just now and played really well at the back and the young Dominic Thompson was the other player that impressed a lot, the youngster provided 2 assist, proving the trust put on him!

In the week before our next match another injury happened - maybe our most stable player, the goalkeeper David Raya is injured and will miss at least 2 matches, maybe more.

Another important thing that occurred - Ben Pearson & Ethan Pinnock came to my office and demanded more playing time, Ethan even suggested to goal on loan just to play, he was simply flawless last year so he deserves it and will get a chance to prove himself. Ben was another case and he was told that there is enough time for him to show us his quality and he understood that. (he gets sub parts, but started just 2 matches for us).

Two days before the next match Mathias Jensen, the most important player on our roster called sick, so we will miss 4 of our initial eleven against Everton. We started with not our typical players and made SIX changes.

Brentford vs. Everton

​

I'm okay with this result, we played almost all of our reserves and they performed really good, we just didn't won. Of course Everton are really good side and took us to the limits, but our defense (Andersson-Jeanvier-Pinnock-Thompson) didn't disappoint. Even the POTM was awarded to Pinnock who got his chance and took it by the neck! Christian Fruchtl also showed his quality and saved a lot of shots! That was not the case in another match for Tibbling & Eliasson, just mediocre displays.Pretty good performance given the circumstances.

And by the Murphy's law - "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." After his brilliant display and clean sheet against Everton - Fruchtl injured himself in training which means that in the next match we will have to play with our third keeper between the posts. The only returning player was Jensen.


CONTINUING IN THE NEXT POST​

 

[OneMoreGame]

CONTINUING FROM THE PREVIOUS POST...



Brentford vs. Bornemouth

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Great gift for our fans as we beat the cherries at Boxing Day! Superb display by the young lad - Dominic Thompson, who replaced Henry and nobody even noticed, even he is making great runs,. He scored a banger, nobody in the stands expected such a powerful shot and also won POTM! Mathias Jensen (2) & Ben Pearson (1) bossed the midfield and provided the assists. It's great news that all the players that demands more playing time, show their quality! Alexander Isak haven't scored from two months so the young Forss is getting more and more chances to prove himself and he clinched our win with a nice finish! Unexpected heroes for inspired Brentford! Also our third and very promising Icelandic goalkeeper Gunnarsson played well.

Another blow for the team as Said Benrahma will miss at least 2 matches and the really well performing Thompson will miss the last match for the month against Man Utd, we are getting more and more thin at the bench.

Manchester United vs. Brentford

​

We didn't replicate our play in the first match against the Red Devils. That plus the performance of Greenwood who just embarrassed our defense twice as he run through it. Another factor was the too many injuries and missing players. The young Finnish striker Forss gets another goal which is promising and maybe will earn him a start in the league. Not the best way to finish our most successful year, but we missed too many players - Mbeumo, Henry, Raya, Benrahma, Fruchtl, Thmopson. We must perform at 110% if we want to match the play of the big clubs in the league and that was not the case.

Player of the Month

OLLIE WATKINS​

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Terrific month for our top scorer Ollie Watkins, who won us 2 matches with his 4 goals! The performance against Watford was godlike as there are not so many matches like this in the career of the footballers! Even that he is played sometimes on the wing, sometimes up front - he just don't disappoints! Superb month for Watkins!

Mathias Jensen played really well and got 3 assists for the month, the young Dominc Thompson also deserves recognition as he was brilliant scoring 1 and assisted 2.

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT

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​

Even though we won 3 of 6 matches we dropped one position into 7th (even points with Everton), but of course I'm more than happy about it. We are just 3 points behind the CL spot which is unbelievable. We managed to get another successful month behind us.

Liverpool finally lost (against Norwich, typical FM), but are too good for the other teams. We, Watford & Everton continue to impress and are in a tough battle for some continental football. Leicester are really struggling (I don't know how with these players that they've got), hopefully they will escape from the tight position there are in.

A lot of the players that didn't get many chances impressed this month and showed that they deserved their place in the squad - Andersson & Thompson on the wingback, Pearson & Chirivella in the centre of the field and Fross upfront! This that I can trust them means a lot. Both reserve goalkeepers also turned up when needed! Pinnock & Jeanvier show their form from the last year and I have 4 equally good CBs.

Tibbling is showing no progress, Isak has not scored from almost 3 months, Fosu and Raggett are not showing the needed quality. The last two maybe will be transfer listed.

Dalsgaard contract is expiring in 6 months so if there is a nice offer for him, he will go. We already sold Reece Cole (youngster) to Almeria for €230k. as his contract is also expiring. We will try to make some more profit with selling another youngsters.

Before the start of the transfer window we already rejected a lot of offers - €18.75M for Pontus Janssen & €13.5M for Said Benrahma by some Chinese teams. Loan offers for Baptiste & Sierralta (Marsille and QPR)

Another packed month is coming up as we will try to continue our good form.




Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Freefall (EP 20)

After successful December the tough schedule for January is upon us. We start very busy month not only on the pitch, but we need some good transfers so we can maintain our good form as some of the players are not performing as expected and some what a lot more playing time that I can guarantee them. Also our scouting department is working so hard to pull some incredible deals for the summer.

We're starting the month with a home game against Burnley for the FA Cup. I'll try to concentrate on the league so I will use mainly reserve players in the cups so not so important match for us.

Through the whole festive period a lot of players were injured and are missing a game or two. Rico Henry will probably miss the whole month again after the injury from the match against Leicester last month. Jeanvier will play at the African Cup of Nations so he will also miss the whole month. Mbeumo will probably return in some of the games.​

BREAKING NEWS!

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We wanted this player from the first transfer window but Ipswich were demanding absurd price. Now they got in a fight with the player about standing in his way of progression and we were the first to respond. FLYNN DOWNES (MC) is a bee for €4M (they wanted €20 in the first season). Great perspective Englishman who can play almost every role in the center of the field!



Brentford vs. Burnley

The match was as ugly as the first one between the two sides (0-0 in the first game of the season) but this time they somehow manage to score a goal. We used only reserve players but nobody stood out and lead the team to a successful game. I don't want to challenge the cups from the first season in the PL so the loss is not a painful one. This happened to be the last game for two of our players though.

Henrik Dalsgaard contract is expiring in June so we sat on the table to discuss if he is willing to cut his wage and agree to a short contract. He was NOT. After a lot of ups and downs for the Danish player. He started this season really well after not playing so much last year and even won a Player of the Month. He also made 106 appearances for the team, but he won't be used anymore as his mistakes are starting to become more and more crucial to us. His attitude was rude and demanding so he will play the rest of the season in the U23 team.

Soooo, we need a new right back. We've got Andersson there (came in the summer) and has some good moments but he's not consistent. David Titov was promoted to the main squad from the U23 as he is looking promising. However we will seek another right defender in the transfer window.

Henan Jianye came with two offers in the first days of the month that were more than welcomed! Tarique Fosu & Halil Dervisoglu (he just got back from a loan) are heading East to play in their absurd league and they gave us €19.25M! Another brilliant business from Brentford as the overall price for both players they pay was €3.75M! Quite a profit! Reece Cole was sold to Almeria as his contract was expiring in the summer.​

So without Fosu & Dalsgaard, but with a lot of cash in our pockets (we had another €20M in the bank) we immediately searched for a replacements.

BREAKING NEWS!


Leicester are struggling to survive and are in the relegation zone and some of their star players want to escape the sinking ship! AYOZE PEREZ (AMC/AMR) is coming to Brentford FC for just €10.25M as he requested a transfer! Great addition to the team and it cost us one Halil Dervisoglu. Hopefully he can boost our team to the next level!

Wolves vs. Brentford

Another team that we draw in the first game (0-0) and again we fail. Started really well the match with the usual combo of Watkins-Jensen this time the second one scored and Ollie assisted. They soon leveled the score and from this point controlled the game but nothing more. Unfortunately Pontus Jansson made a terrible mistake in which he lost the ball and then fouled Jimenez. We pushed for the draw but failed in our attempts. Isak was injured, Ayoze Perez didn't have the best debut and third straight defeat in all competition!

Our wingbacks in the face of Thompson & Andersson are not on the same level as last year and we suffer from that. Henry is injured, Roerslev was sold. The young Thompson is performing okay and last month was one of the best in the team but again - he is not consistent. We need some options out there if we want things to happen.​

We continue with our policy of loaning players so they can develop in the other teams. The most notable outs are Simon Tibbling - just not performing well for us - going to the Greek AEK, Patrik Gunnarsson - our third keeper going to Wigan and Alfa Semedo going back to Portugal after wanting to play more time that we can afford. All of these players still have a future in our team, just not right now.​

CONTINUING IN THE POST BELOW...​

 

[OneMoreGame]

CONTINUING FROM THE POST ABOVE...


Brentford vs Newcastle


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Must win match for us against the struggling Newcastle. David Titov made his debut at RB and played really well. Fantastic match again for Ollie Watkins who scored 1 and won POTM. Ben Pearson also tapped a goal earlier in the game. Our opponents got only 2 shots on goal, however scored one and made the match a lot more nervous until the end. However nice win for us and we win our first game of the year.​

Brentford vs. Norwich



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Copy of the first game (1-1). We dominate - they get the points. Really frustrating to see such matches as we miss a lot of chances and the team against us score 3 goals from 3 shots but this is football and everything can happen. Ayoze Perez gets his debut goal and young Titov with his first assist. As said before the Canaries got really nice squad with some decent talents and some stars from the past.

David Raya got sick and will miss our next match, Mbeumo is close to return and Isak can score a sitter. Bad times at Brentford.

We rejected €19M for Said Benrahma from another Chinese team, but they don't stop with these offers.​

Bornemouth vs. Brentford


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We loose to the cherries as we face them for the second time in less than a month. Again we play the better football, however we get home with empty bag. And this happens only 3 weeks after the beating they took from OUR RESERVE SQUAD. This time we fall, they also we're a lot better. Josh Dasilva scored a long distance banger, but again when Watkins could not provide there is no other striker to take his place. Drought for Isak. This month is getting worse and worse as we failed to win against teams that ARE beatable. For the second time this month Pontus Jansson looses the ball and we receive a goal. Our leaders are making the mistakes which is really bad.​

BREAKING NEWS!



We needed a rightback and got a perfect one! OSKAR BUUR (RB) is a 22 Danish player coming from Wolves for just less than €1M. We continue to search for hidden gems, especially from the Scandinavian nations. Buur looks a lot like Mads Roerslev and hopefully he will play like him!


After failing to get Andrija Zivkovic from Benfica we turned our heads to another great talent that can put us in better position in the future. JEONG WOO-YEONG (AMR/AML) comes from Freiburg after we activate his release clause of €7.75M. Another player for the future! The 21 years old South Korean is from the Bayern Munich academy and will have to help us finding our good form again!


We also received an offer for Pontus Jansson for €25M but we rejected it. Even though he made 2 terrible mistake this month, he is our captain and the most powerful player in the locker room. We need him!

Liverpool vs. Brentford



Trip to Anfield is never pleasant, but with our recent form to face the 1st in the league away is a tough situation. We had nothing to loose and I gave full debuts to Oskar Buur & Flynn Downes - both played well. Of course Liverpool dominated us and scored from a set-piece early in the game but we had some decent chances. In the last five minutes Mbeumo missed great opportunity to make the score even and to draw against the reds for the third time in the season.

January is over and hopefully we don't have another month like this in the future!

Player of the Month

MATHIAS JENSEN​

Nobody deserves an award after such a month, however Mathias Jensen always gives his 100% and is better than everybody else in the team. Finishes the month with 1 goal, 1 assist but always playing interesting passes and tries to cut the opponents defense. Overall our best player as he never fails to provide for us. He is far from his 19 assist from last season, but still has 7 for now.

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT

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Awful month for us, our worst one since we came into the division with 4 losses and just 1 win. Also we were beaten in the FA Cup, had a lot of injuries and nothing was right for us. We dropped one more position - to the 8th and now we're not so close to the 6th place that gives continental football. With one more win our survival will become almost sure but we must aim for more than that.

Liverpool finally slowed the pace and are just 5 points ahead of Man Utd, Watford & Everton continue with the good form and the bottom three is not changed much as Leicester are in deep ****.

We sold Fosu & Dervisoglu for €19.25M, and loaned Tibbling, Gunnerson and Semedo so they can play enough time to develop.

Another blank month for Isak, which is very frustrating as he is our top signing. Tried almost everything, I'm praying for a penalty so he can take it and release the curse.

Next month we have only three matches - Burnley (H), Everton (A), Watford (H).

Here are the new guys that we bought for the price of €23M. Our finances are really great as we have another €17M in the bank, but because of our transfer policy and my wish to play without buying pricey players we won't use them. ​

​

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.​

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Out Of The Swamp (EP 21)


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After the slap in the past month we need to get out of the swamp. We picked only 3 points and now we face a series of tough opponents. Our strikers are not scoring goals, our important players are injured way too often and everything is against us, but we need to find a way to escape from this.

As one of our games was postponed I will merge the games from February and March (5 games) so the episodes are not just 2 matches long.

Rico Henry still have issues with his fitness and have some minor injuries. All other players are fit, some of them as Mbeumo, Benrahma haven't played from a long time due to injury problems.

Our schedule looks like this: Burnley (H), Everton (A), Watford (H), Chelsea (A), Leicester (H). We face our rivals for the European spots, also facing some of the teams facing troubles with staying up in the PL as Burnley & Leicester.

BREAKING NEWS!


JESUS VALLEJO (DC) will play for Brentford from the summer as the Bees get him for free as Real Madrid don't want him anymore! Another great pull for us! He haven't played much this year but will help us become more stable at the back. The arrival means that we will need to offload some defenders in the summer as their number just keep rising.

Brentford vs. Burnley


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Third match against Burnley this season, 1 loss in the FA Cup, 1 draw (0-0). Oh my god! Where should I start! We start pretty great with having a penalty in the first 15 minutes. Finally a way to stop the curse that doesn't allow Alexander Isak to score. Aaaand he misses it! Speechless! By the end of the first half we manage to score from a corner - ALEXANDER ISAK FINALLY. Ups, VAR doesn't think that way! The goal is ruled out! At the break I just said to the players that I still have faith in them. We have another penalty in the start of the second half and I though that if Isak misses it again out spirits will be broken and the season will get tougher and tougher, but magic happens - he ends his drought and we break the wall that Burnley has build around their goal. In fact - this is the first goal we score against them in the three matches. We dominate the game and the young Dominic Thompson who grabbed the opportunity to replace Henry by the neck scores another beauty, wins the match and wins POTM. Oskar Buur with his first assist for the club as he gets in our starting XI really fast!

Everton vs. Brentford


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Grudge match! We had 6 yellow cards, they had 3! However our wrestling abilities are weaker and we receive sloppy goal after pin-ball situation in our box after a set-piece. We tried to push them in the end but again our striker fail to score. The things are getting out of hands as neither of the 5-6 main players that I'm using is not in form. Everton has great squad and it's fighting for a spot in the CL, they also reached the final in the Carabao Cup. Despite the loss another POTM performance by Dominic Thompson. Our main player at the left back Rico Henry will be fully fit for the next match but with this form of the young lad, I can't give him chance.

Our wingbacks in the face of Thompson & Andersson are not on the same level as last year and we suffer from that. Henry is injured, Roerslev was sold. The young Thompson is performing okay and last month was one of the best in the team but again - he is not consistent. We need some options out there if we want things to happen.

Brentford vs Watford


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This time the game against Watford the game is not so dramatic (3-2 in the first match) as we take the lead early as our captain puts in it the net after another great assist by Jensen. In the end of the half we score the most ridiculous goal I've ever seen. Benrahma hits the side bar, the ball comes back to a Watford defender who kicks it with full power only to hit his nearby teammate and the ball is in the net for the second time after the rebound. All the players done well this match, Pedro Chirivella gets the POTM. Great win against direct rival!

Bad news from our medical team as Christian Norgaard will miss the next 6 weeks after an injury.

Meanwhile Chelsea retain the Carabao Cup after winning the final against Everton! 1 Premier League title, 2 Carabao Cups and Community Shield. Not a bad year for the blues which are our next opponent!

Chelsea vs. Brentford


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We get destroyed by the team in high spirits! After another unlucky rebound from Kehrer we are loosing after just 19 minutes. After that we hit the bar but overall Chelsea just are the better team. Only a few teams have been dominating us so much, but Chelsea did it two times this season. We have no answers for their attack. Two losses with 3-0. Rico Henry returned finally after almost 3 months but couldn't contribute.

Brentford FC makes another signing as the young PSG winger Hussayn Touati will play for us from the summer. Great potential for no money - what we can ask for more?

Brentford vs. Leicester


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Even though Leicester are fighting against relegation they are a great team and the match was really close. However we had the most chances, we missed a lot, they clear from the goal-line twice and in the second half we finally break them with the first goal for Jeong Woo, who comes as a sub! Oskar Buur provides the assist and also wins POTM with his great display! We thought that we've won it the same as last time against foxes (1-0) but Vardy spoils our party with a counter attacking goal in the final minutes of the game. We deserved to win, however I'm not so disappointed.

CONTINUING IN THE POST BELOW...​

 

[OneMoreGame]

CONTINUING FROM THE POST ABOVE...

Player of the Month



DOMINICK THOMPSON​

Terrific month for the young lad, scoring 1, winning 2 POTM and gets 2 clean sheets! Pulling all from the opportunity to be a starting player and showing that can be trusted. He only missed the game against Chelsea. I had plans to search for a new left back but with his performances I'm not sure if we need another. He also becomes 2nd in the PL YPOTM. Bright future for him!

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT
​

We get on our feet after these two months and even though we drop to 9th place we are just 3 points away from the spot that potentially can give us some continental football. It was vital that we had really great first half of the season, because we are not performing so well now. The main problem is that our attackers don't score, none of them, none of them is in form, nothing! Isak finally scored but then again was silent for the next 4 matches, Watkins also hasn't scored in 2 months. Benrahma & Mbeumo can't find their form after the injuries. It's too soon to judge Ayoze & Jeong. Our first signing last year Niclas Eliasson also is far away from the desired form and if he doesn't show anything until the end of the season will be transfer listed. The good part is that our back line and the midfielders are playing really well and are providing for the team for now.

In the table - Liverpool is slipping his advance, Everton is marching through and are close to playing CL football. We, Watford & Tottenham will fight for the last place giving EL football and finally Leicester are out of the bottom three, but just look at their stats - 3 wins and 15 DRAWS (!!!).

We will look for some potential transfers until the end of the season as we need to be sure not to get in situations like this - with nobody that can score goals. Also I'm thinking that we can try and implement some different tactics next year reverting our main 4-3-3 into 4-3-2-1 in some of the matches. Maybe I'll try this in some of the upcoming games.

Next month will see almost the same games as November when we played all London clubs:
Crystal Palace (H), Tottenham (A), QPR, (A), Arsenal (H), Manchester City (A).

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - The Golden Mean (EP 22)

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We enter April on the 9th place, just 2 points behind the 7th place which can eventually give European football. We managed to get out of the swamp with 2 nice wins and a draw against Leicester however our form is nothing close compared to the beautiful things we did in the autumn.

Flynn Downes is out until the end of the season with a unlucky injury. Christian Norgaard & Niclas Eliasson are also injured and will miss the whole month. Rico Henry still has some minor issues and often is out for 2-3 days.

Our strikes forget how to score and this is really bothering the team as we don't get full 3 points on too many occasions because of the misses.

Our schedule is not the easiest one as we face these teams: Crystal Palace (H), Tottenham (A), QPR, (A), Arsenal (H), Manchester City (A).

Brentford vs. Crystal Palace

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Brentford FC started the month with really great win against Palace as we manage to avenge for our loss earlier in the league by the same result. All the team played superb and we smash our opponents. Baptiste gets his first goal for the campaign and it was a nice one. Pontus again shows his inner striker spirit and bangs one and finally a goal from one of our attackers as Benrahma ends Palace's hopes, he also provides one assist in the match. However the best man on the pitch was Mathias Jensen who assist two of the goals and wins POTM.

FUN FACT: Jensen just equalized the record for most assist in the top flight for a Brentford player, he needs only 1 to break it.

Tottenham vs. Brentford

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Disgusting! One of those matches where every stats is even, the play is even but the score is absurd! Tough loss against one of our direct opponents for the EL spots (now it's the third tournament by UEFA). The whole team was ****** after the match because of the final score. I mean Spurs played well, but we did also. Not fair result and the spirits of getting our form back were hurt a lot. Again our attackers missed all that can be missed, absolute disaster!

Brentford vs QPR

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Derby day against the team that we tend to beat every time (3 out of 3) aaaand we fail to score again. We tried our new formation 4-2-3-1 that I will try to implement for the next season. Also made a lot of changes in the starting XI, however is crucial to win against the bottom of the table teams. We dominated the whole match and played really well but there is nobody to score the f`cking goal. Watkins is playing more and more poorly as he tries to catch up with the disastrous form of Isak. Absolute **** show! Needless to say that their GK won the POTM.

On top of that Baptiste who was one of our best players for the team in the last matches is out for the next 5 weeks which means he is out for the rest of the season.

Brentford vs. Manchester City

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After the poor result in the last in the previous match we start the match awfully as we are down 2 goals by the 32 minute after both Jesus & Aguero put one in our net. This time we show what are we made of and comeback brilliantly! Chirivella puts up a show - scores a banger and leads our team (winning POTM). In the end Oskar Buur is brought down in the penalty area and we get a penalty! I stepped up and give instructions to the players to give the ball to the young Forss, who is getting more and more time because of the form of the other 2 strikers and he doesn't disappoint and seals the final score!

With this result we gift the Premier League title to Liverpool as they can't be reached by the two Manchester teams. First title for the reds for 31 years!

Brentford vs. Arsenal

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Our final chance to close the gap to the 7th place but we fail short again because of the misses. Another even game against a really good team but they manage to steal the win with a goal. No one from our team didn't step up to lead the play and we remain in the unstable form, scoreless for a third time this month. We are now too away to attack the spots ahead of us as our opponents win their matches and should improve drastically in the next season if we want to stay alive for another year.

Player of the Month

PEDRO CHIRIVELLA​

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Pedro played a great part of our revival this year with his playmakaing skills. This month he played in almost every match and showed his immense quality. The Spanish midfielder is establishing himself as vital part of our starting XI as he is getting more chances with Norgaard's injury. Just 1 goal and 1 POTM for him, but he is contributing with his play, not with goals & assist. He also is the player with the best average rating in our squad. In the final match of the month Pedro injured himself and will be out of the rest of the matches.

Other notable performance this month - Shandon Baptiste played great, but was injured and didn't finish the month properly.

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT

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With only 3 matches left we are comfortably sitting in the top half of the table, but rather away from the European spots which are unreachable now. Coming to the end of the season I'm happy with the good overall performance of the team but we could have been a lot better! Poor form in the spring combined with scoreless attackers are not enough for a better place in the league. We will try to retain our spot in the first half of the table in the next three matches. We finish the month with a lot of injuries, happily none of them is long term.

We gifted the title to Liverpool with the result against City (just bragging, they would win it anyways), Everton is the only team to break into the top six in the end of the season and Leicester almost save themselves with a couple of nice result this month.

We still have €10M in the bank if something nice pops up, I wonder if we should get back Sergi Canos as he is listed for just €2M and Newcastle are almost relegated. Our first signings - Eliasson & Regett will probably exit the club as the first just doesn't fit the club (we play with inverted wingers/inside forwards and he is best as winger) and the second one just doesn't stand a chance against the other central defenders. Chris Willock won't be bought as he didn't contribute much with his stay here.

In the final month of the campaign we meet West Ham, Leeds & Brighton and will try to play only with my new tactics.

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Establishing In PL (EP 23)

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Entering the final month of our first PL season we are playing for our pride and staying in the top half of the table, which will be great achievement for a newly promoted side. We had ups and downs but overall I'm delighted with the club performance.

Although we have good overall standing, our form is bothering me as we didn't have the best second part of the season and the final month will be the time to finally escape from the mediocrity. Hopefully our attackers will do that too. We will play with 4-2-3-1 our final matches as we start preparing for the next season.

We start the month with a lot of injuries - Flynn Downes, Christian Norgaard, Shandon Baptiste, Francisco Sierralta & Pedro Chirivella will miss all the matches this month.

West Ham vs. Brentford

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Playing with another team in the middle of the table, playing only for pride (and some other million in the bank) the match was entertaining giving the fans some great football. We gave Niclas Eliasson last final chance to prove himself, but he didn't seize it and he will be transfer listed. The Hammers get in front with goal by Messi Lingard who is really not that bad in the game. Finally our attackers are playing well and great combination between Ayoze Perez and Alexander Isak is transformed into goal. The last one even won POTM even though he came in as a sub in the second half.

Another injury blow after the game - Josh Dasilva will be out for 2 months. Our players dropped like leaves one by one in the end of the season.

Also Leicester won their game which means that the relegated teams are Newcastle, QPR and Leeds.

Brentford vs. Leeds

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Playing against already relegated team was the perfect thing for us. A goal by Benrahma in the first half showed our dominance and another by Isak (WHAT, HE SCORES TWO IN A ROW????) was enough for to sink down our opponents. Really unfortunate for Leeds as they have great squad but they had the same problem as us - didn't have the right player upfront to convert the chances into goals. Augustin finishes with just 5 goals. Again our front players have a great game and start scoring, however other player was the best on the pitch (POTM) - young Oskar Buur gave another 2 assists and is enjoying his football.

BREAKING NEWS!

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Just days before the end of the current season Brentford FC signs YOSSEF BENNASER (DM/MC) for just €3.2M! The Morrocan was not needed by Monaco and the Bees acted quickly to get his services. He joins already packed midfield which means the competition for a first team place will be even greater!

Brigthon vs. Brentford

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The final day saw another great spectacle with a lot of goals and pressurefree football. Mbeumo gets his only third goal for the campaign in the second minute. After the equalizing goal by Brighton, they play a lot better than us and a silly foul by Jansson and they've got the lead. However we have our savior in the face of Benrahma who puts the ball in the net after a great run through the defenders in the last minute and this is the final touch to our Premier League season.

FUN FACT: Just what?

Player of the Month

SAID BENRAHMA​

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With only 2 games for him this month (he missed the one versus West Ham because of an injury) - he scored in both of them and is one of the few players that didn't loose so much from his form from last year. Also the ability to play on both wings is great for our squad. The Algerian Mahrez (could not escape from that) is one of the brightest talents in our squad!

Alexander Isak had a good month with 2 goals but after the disappointing season this hopefully is a start for a great next campaign. Oskar Buur gave 2 assist and was another notable player for our team.

LEAGUE TABLE & VERDICT

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We finish the league in the same position that we are in the last three months - 9th! Great for new team, not enough for me. It was a good thing that our attackers returned some kind of form in the final two months. Only Ollie Watkins is still far away from his best days, maybe it's the constant rotation of his position that is the problem. I even tried him playing behind Isak at the AMC position. I signed another 4 year extension to my contract which means the board is fully behind me and my vision.

The final table sees the same top 7 as the year before. Our duty will be to sneak into these places and get our first European games! QPR, Newcastle & Leeds are going down as the foxes escape and fully deserved to be in that place.

In the final episode for this season we will see the review of the season for us and for our players.

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

 

[OneMoreGame]

A Swarm Of Bees - Season 20/21 Review (EP 24)

Our first in the Premier League.

Our first season in the Premier League and now it's time for a deep review of it. We manage to finish in the top half of the table although we were predicted to be relegated before the season. Of course the biggest factor for this standing was the 9 match unbeaten streak from September to the end of November! Our form dropped a lot in the spring with a lot of injuries and not in form players we didn't what it takes to play in Europe. We also didn't make anything great in the cups, winning just one of our EFL Cup matches.

However - everyone in the club are delighted with the position in which the club is. We were among the only two clubs in PL which made profit from transfers last year. (Leicester were the other team) We also finished the year with €10M+ in our bank.

Also not buying pricey players while having the resource is really hard. We are trying to maintain our transfer policy, but also want to prosper and get higher in the table, which is immensely linked with buying better players.​

Here are all the results through the year:




Season Awards:

In the PL records we were manage to get only in two of them. Ollie Watkins thunderous strike against Watford was the 3rd best goal and Mathias Jensen's 10 assist were enough to get him the 3rd place in the rankings.

We are taking a look at our squad and give them some final words after the season.

Goalkeepers:

1. David Raya - Another great season for our first choice keeper as he finishes with 9 shutouts (far from 21 last year) and didn't make any mistakes. Always stable, perfect keeper! Won also the POTM for August!

21. Christian Fruchtl - Played 6 games through the year and was very good in all of them, 2 shutouts and very bright future for our second GK.

13. Patrick Gunnarsson - Yep, we had to use our 3rd keeper this year because of an injury crisis and he delivered! However he will be loaned out this year after spending the Spring at Wigan.
Defenders:

18. Pontus Jansson (c) - One of our best players. Really good at the back, made good partnership with Kehrer and also provided 3 goals & 3 assists for our team which is a lot for a CB. Although he was one of our top players - he made huge amount of mistakes which led to a goal or a chance for goal.

16. Thilo Kehrer - Our best signing for sure! Again made great work in defending our goal, we manage to surprise a lot of the big teams in the league exactly with the low proportion of goals that we allow. Also scored 4 goals! Kehrer & Jansson were the core of our defense. Won 1 POTM!

23. Julian Jeanvier & 5. Ethan Pinnock - After giving their place for Kehrer, both of them showed their quality when were used. We had some troubles with Jeanvier who wanted more playing time and will be no surprise if he leaves the club in the summer. Good season for both of them!

4. Francisco Sierralta & 30. Sean Reggett - Both of them didn't played much. Francisco played 4 matches and will be in our team again, but Reggett who was brought because of another injury crisis an year before will be leaving after he could not compare to the other defenders.

Wingbacks:

3. Rico Henry - Nothing near his previous year, he was chased by an injuries after November and never really recovered his form to play regularly. After he returned, Dominik was playing really well and he stood mostly on the bench. Also a couple of minor injuries (6 total through the season). He finishes the year with just 2 assist.

22. Henrik Dalsgaard - Another disappointment. After playing really well in the start of the season and even winning POTM award, scoring 1 goal & assisting 2 Dalsgaard didn't want to sign another contract as his was expiring in the summer. Awful news for the team and he played the rest of the season for our U23 team. He will be joining Nordsjaelland for free.

27. Adam Andersson - My high expectations towards him were not right. After joining for just €1M he doesn't brought the needed quality that we needed after the departure of Mads Roerslev last year. Playing in just 12 games he manage to get only 1 assist. Poor season, maybe I should not give him another chance, it depends if there is interested team in buying him.

2. Dominic Thompson - Saved our left wing after the Henrys injury. Brilliant stuff from the 20 years old Englishman who was one of our inform players when nobody else in the team played well. The battle for the next season starting left wingback will be severe! With his play he manage to convince me that we don't need another player there. 2 goals, 2 assists and won our POTM award!

35. Oskar Buur - Bought in the winter for €1M, he started delivering in the moment he stepped on the pitch. Played almost every match since then, Oskar is now vital part of our team, delighted with his play. 4 assist for just 13 matches.

37. David Titov - Our youngster played 3 matches in the league when we didn't have anyone there and was more than good! However will be loaned for the next season.

Midfielders:

8. Mathias Jensen - For me our best player for a second year in a row! Our team relies on his play and when he has a good day we win almost every time. Great player, happy to have him! 3 goals & 10 assists (as he еqualized the record for most assist by Brentford player in PL), 1 POTM. Again as last year - our maestro in the midfield.

14. Josh Dasilva - It wasn't the best year for him as the matches in the PL are tougher than Championship. Also he had a lot more competition for his place and played in 22 matches - 2 goals, a lot of yellow cards and promising start of his PL career, but nothing more. He injured himself in the final month and will miss the summer camp.

6. Christian Norgaard - Just a few matches for him and was in the shadow of the better performing players in his position. Injured for a month and a half. He got only 1 assist, poor season for him, maybe it's time to let him go.

7. Pedro Chirivella - Our young player of the year! He didn't provide much assists & goals (just 1 goal) but was helping the team a lot with his playmaking from deep positions. He finishes the campaign with the best average rating for our team and was one of the reason for Norgaard less minutes in the squad.

26. Shandon Baptiste - He got the promised more playing time and was really good! He and Dasilva are very similar players, so it's nice the have a good player twice. 1 goal & 2 assist for him.

17. Ben Pearson - Another playmaker who had a good season, played in a couple of positions in the center of the field and overall can be trusted every time when used. He got 2 goals & 1 assist.

88. Flynn Downes - After his transfer in the winter, he made only 2 appearances before an injury put him down for the rest of the season.

12. Alfa Semedo - Played really good for us before loaning him out in Portugal because he wasn't happy with his play time. I want him in my squad, but he needs to respect my decisions.

28. Simon Tibbling - I like him a lot, but there is no chance for him to play because of Jensen form. That's way he left for AEK in the winter, to play regularly. Maybe he will get more chances next year.​

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[OneMoreGame]

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Wingers:

19. Bryan Mbeumo - Okay season for him, troubled with an injuries (he got one just days after winning POTM), after that had some unconvincing games. At the end of the season he returned to his good days. 3 goals & 3 assists for him.

10. Said Benrahma - One of the few players that played as strongly as the last season! Providing thread after thread for the opponents goalkeepers, Benrahma had good season. Again can't near his stats to last year because of the difference in the teams quality. 5 goals, 5 assist and winner of POTM for our final month.

77. Jeong Woo-Yeong - After coming in the winter he played mostly as a sub, but scored 1 & assisted 1 in important matches. Will give him the opportunity next year as he looks really good for the future.

24. Ayoze Perez - Expected much more from him. He is used in a couple of positions and that's way his play is struggling. With the new 4-2-3-1 formation he will get more chances at his best position - the attacking midfielder. 1 goal & 1 assist after 8 matches for him.

20. Niclas Eliasson - Started his career really well with a goal in his debut, but he is always injured, always. Also he doesn't fit our style of play so he will leave Brentford in the summer for sure.

SOLD. Tarique Fosu - Poor season for him in the first half, however we manage to get almost €10M which is incredible. Not manage to provide a single goal nor assist.

Strikers:

11. Ollie Watkins - He started the season really well and was one of our top players, however as the team overall form was dropping, his was free falling. He has't scored since January! Again I use him either on the top of the attack or on the left wing as an inside forward. Although this drop of form he finishes with 8 goals (tied top), 2 assist & 1 POTM. He also is the man with the most player of the match awards in our team and won us very important matches singlehandedly (3 goals in 3-2 win against Watford), but we just expected much more from him. Not bad season, but could have been a lot better.

9. Alexander Isak - The biggest disappointment this year of our team. Our expectations were that we got a top goalscorer who will bang 15+ goals every year. He had a dry period from September to February, ugly thing. However 8 goals and tied top goalscorer for the team in his first season. Also he got back on track in the final weeks of the campaign which is a good sign for the next one!

15. Marcus Forrs - 3 goals for him and helped us when the other 2 attackers were in knockout. Giving him a lot more minutes that the previous season.

Overall - the thing that helped us the most was the unity in the team. There is no big stars, no record salaries, just boys that love the game and are giving their best of the team. We could have attack the 7th spot, but we are happy with where we are and now will need to focus on the next season.

As you can see there are too many players on the roster and we have 10+ players from the U23 team which are ready to play for the first team but there is no place for them. I always get in this position that will have to loan a lot of players again to keep the harmony in the club. Our midfield is packed and the players will start a riot for not playing. Tough decision to make in the upcoming weeks. We start to look like Chelsea with 20+ loanees every season but this is the structure of the club.

BREAKING NEWS!

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After securing the services of Jesus Vallejo & Youssef Bennasser before the end of the season, Brentford FC are happy to announce that they achieved to get another set of high class talents from bigger clubs without spending any money! The biggest name that arrives is ANDREW GRAVILLON (DC) from Inter. Powerfull centre back that will help strengthen our defense! Other nice pull ups are Hussayn Touati (AML) from PSG who looks really great, Nabil Touaizi (ST) & James Trafford (GK) from Man City, Alexandre Jankewitz (MC) from Southampton. Just Andrew will stay at the club, the other new boys will be loaned so we don't pay their salaries and get first team experience.

Around The World

England - Liverpool (1) won the league for the first time in 31 years as the top 7 team are the same as the year before. Newcastle was relegated alongside the new sides QPR & Leeds and on their places we will see Blackburn, Southampton & Sheffield Utd. Chelsea (1) won both FA & Carabao Cup and are establishing them as one of the top English teams after my managerial arrival, winning the league and 4 domestic cups.

Spain - Barcelona (1) dethroned Real Madrid (1) as champions of Spain. Getafe got in the Champions League and Sevilla missed Europe for the first time in many years. Also Barcelona won their 2 straight Copa del Ray. Celta fail to return in the LaLiga.

Italy - Juventus (1) get their title back from Inter (1), but they fail to retain the TIM Cup as they loose in the final against Lazio.

Germany - Bayern Munich (2) retain the title and the domestic cup! Hertha are relegated to 2nd Bundesliga!

France - PSG (2) wins their second title in a row, however Nice lift the Coupe de France, after beating Montpellier in the final!

Champions League - Barcelona (1) do the treble! They win the most wanted trophy after beating PSG in the final! Second year in a row that a team makes a treble after Bayern (1) last year. Really easy road to the final for Barcelona beating Zenit, Marseille & RB Leipzig before the final.

Europa League - Lyon (1) are the big champions after perfect tournament! They beat Inter, Roma, Man City to reach the final, where they beat another great team in the face of Atletico Madrid.
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Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

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