Ahead of the West London derby with Brentford on Friday night we turn once more to Beesotted’s Billy Grant for the latest on the visitors.

Brentford seemed to do some really decent transfer business over the summer, how would you assess it?

BG: We learned a lot from last season. We bought in probably a dozen new players a year ago - many of them from Europe - and it took most of last season for the majority of them to bed in.

This season we were more calculated. After offering keeper David Button a new contract a year ago and him balking, we just went out and bought Dan Bentley which forced Button to find another club (F*lham). We didn't risk being caught short - as we have been done before - with him walking away for free.

Midfielder Romaine Sawyers was with manager Dean Smith at Walsall. He was in the Division 1 PFA Player of the Year team last season. He’s a bit of a marmite player for fans. Obviously very skillful but still acclimatising to the division (very much in the same way that the dozen or so players had to last season). However, his languid laid-back style has not gone down well with a section of the fans who see him as lazy and a bit casual at times. He actually was substituted to cheers against Barnsley last weekend which was quite bad.

Personally, I think there’s very much something there. And if anything, he can be a bit too clever for his team-mates at times with his through balls and clever flicks. He’ll come good give him a few months if the fans don’t slaughter him.

Left Back Rico Henry we signed from Walsall with a busted shoulder. That’s how highly we must rate him (or how desperate we must be for a full back). Yet another player in the Division 1 PFA player of the year team. We were touted to be in for him a season ago but at that stage, he was being courted by Premier League teams and we thought we had no chance whatsoever of nabbing him.

Twelve months later, we grabbed our chance paying £1.5m for an injured full back. Only time will tell if he will be worth the money as he’s not due back till after Xmas.

Mustn’t forget centre back John Egan. Another player who was in the League 1 PFA player of the year team. He’s been a solid addition to our defence which was been a tad porous the last two seasons. Some people have said that his presence has helped to improve Harlee Dean’s performances this season.

How's the start of the season been?

BG: A funny one. But overall not bad. We lost to Huddersfield 2-1 first game of the season which we thought was a bit of a fluff as we had smashed them 5-1 on the last day of the season. But in retrospect, it was a fair result. They were fitter than us, moved faster on and off the ball and general were more potty for it than we were.

Beating Ipswich the following week was good because that’s always a barometer of where we are in the league. We seem to always be there or there abouts Ipswich every season.

But losing to Rotherham - after having 80% possession or something silly - sums up our season so far. They had one shot and we threw the kitchen sink at them.

We’re the only team they’ve beaten to date. That’s very embarrassing.
To sum it up. We’re potentially a decent side. But not consistent enough. And add any injuries to the side and we will struggle in a couple of key areas - particularly on the wings and up front.

Little dip lately, four without a win, what's that down to?

BG: Wigan parked the bus against us at home for first 0-0 draw for well over a year. It was quite bad. We weren’t ready for it because they claim to play open expansive football all the time.

Then we lost 3-1 up at Newcastle. You guys know all about Newcastle. Self explanatory that result.

Derby we should have beaten but lacked that edge.

Barnsley. We were just rubbish. Weren’t really up for it whereas Barnsley were. And Hogan, surprisingly, left his shooting boots at home.

We left captain Harlee Dean out of the side for that match after he missed the Derby game due to a one match suspension. He will be absolutely chomping at the bit to come back in against QPR.

How has Dean Smith done so far? Impressed?

Depends on who you ask, and when you ask them.

If you asked our PrideOfWest.London podcast buddy Liberal Nick back in February (as you will hear on the podcast below which also features Paul Finney from the QPR podcast), he would have told you he seriously questioned Smith being the right person for the job. In fact, he may have even called for Smith to be be-headed but that is being disputed at the moment and is being adjudicated by the podcast judge as we speak.

To be fair, if we were owned by a Wigan or Wolves chairperson, Smith would have been out of his ear by last March after only four months in charge. And especially after that performance against QPR. We won only one game between Boxing Day and the beginning of April. It was looking pretty bleak.

Others felt that Smith needed time to build up his own team and pull together his own side who wanted to play for him. He has done that to a certain extent. There are players in this team who are definitely ‘Smith men’.

Nico Yennaris. The forgotten man under previous regimes. Smith gave him his first real chance of first team football.

Midfielder Romaine Sawyers, who played under Smith at Walsall, is definitely a Smith man. So much so he got a load of abuse from a section of the Brentford crowd who cheered when he was finally substituted against Barnsley. He’s marmite player Sawyers. Many fans hate him because he’s not blood and thunder. And doesn’t always track back. But he’s a very clever technical player who is still struggling to get up to speed with The Championship. It took half the squad a whole season to get to grips with this league last year so Sawyers has got time - if the fans don’t get on his back.

And striker Scott Hogan - although he was bought two years ago - is seen as part of the Smith regime.

Personally, I wanted to see how Smith fared this season. Last season was far too early to judge. This season we have had some absolutely tremendous moments (beating Brighton 2-0 on their turf. Beating Preston 4-0 and Reading 4-1) but we have been too inconsistent. But I also know that we still do not have the full complement of players that Smith feels that he needs to do a job.

So with what he’s got (and this isn’t a disrespect to the players … just we’re a it light), he’s doing pretty well.

Quite a surprise to hear about Brentford shutting down much of their academy. Why was it done and how have the fans taken it?

BG: This was strictly due to cost. The academy was spiraling out of control from what we have heard. It was very expensive to run and the perception was that it was not producing the players at a rate that the club was expecting it to.
We also had a number of our most highly regarded young players picked up by big teams (Man Utd, Man City) before the age of 18 after being at the academy for a number of years - something that is apparently hard to stop if you have very good young up and coming talent. This highlighted how hard it is for so called ‘smaller’ clubs to hold onto their top developing youth talent if a big club decides they really want to pick them up.

A decision was made to refocus the academy into a B team - around 24 or so players who have been picked specifically to feed into the first team at some stage. The team has played some decent matches - I recently watched them beat Liverpool (on penalties) and they have a match against Man United coming up in a few weeks.

The club is very pleased with the progress of the player in the B team apparently who now have a clear access path into the first team - with a number of B team players regularly training with the A team and also travelling with them on match-day and even appearing on the subs bench.

When money becomes less of an issue (the idea is to try plough most of it into the first team squad at the moment) I’m sue they will look at the academy idea again.

QPR tried for Dan Bentley a couple of summers back, take it he's really looking the part for you guys?

BG: Bentley is quality. The best keeper I’ve seen down at Griffin Park for some years. If he carries on playing as he is, he will be playing in the Premier League in the not too distant future … so we need to pull our fingers out if it is going to be with us.

Stand out players and weak links in the side?

BG: Stand out players … of course striker Hogan on his day is tremendous. Woods is a great quarterback. And our defence can look pretty awesome as of late and with Harlee Dean back in the frame after a couple of games out, hopefully it will have the fire returned to its belly which has been missing of late.

Weak links … ha. That would be telling. Our strength in depth is a major issue. We’re a bit light at the moment due to injury. It is also no secret that we have been dying for wingers for a while. We have Kaikai from Crystal Palace and Josh Clarke from our youth team playing in those positions who are both learning their game. If they turn it on, they could cause you a fair few problems.

Realistic aims for the rest of the season?

BG: Realistically if we finish within the top ten, we would have done very well. There’s a hell of a lot of cash flying around and we’re not the ones chucking it about.

But saying that, there is also a lot of wastage too. Look at the nonsense Wolves have been up to as of late sacking Walter Zenga after a few months in charge. He spent a fair few million on players as well. We would kill to be able to spend the way that they have.

The idea is to tread water competing admirably but then go for the kill when the time is right. When is the right time? Who knows. There is an argument to say you have to take it when you can because who knows what may be around the corner.

We've seen a bit of Jake Bidwell prior to his recent injury, but what can we expect from him?

BG: Jake is a reliable player. First in training. Last out of training. And the utmost professional. You won’t find him on twitter. Or slagging off other people in public. That was one of the main reason why he was maid captain at Brentford. His professionalism is second to none.

He grew with Brentford - from when we got him from Everton. But personally I think he reached a plateau with The Bees and it was probably best for both parties that he left when he did. He wanted to discover pastures new. And we needed to get a new left back.

Everyone’s a winner at the end of the day.

Links >>> LFW’s answers for Beesotted

The Twitter @BillyTheBeegg, @Beesotted, @Loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

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W12SG2 added 21:52 - Oct 27 Good to hear from Billy. Remember him as a bit of a face on the jazz dance scene back in the late 80s and he used to promote a band I was in. Last time I saw him he'd applied for a job at the FA. How the fuk greg dyke gets a job there and not him explains the general kuntishness around football, j terry ban mentioned being a prime example.
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TacticalR added 16:45 - Oct 28 Thanks to Billy. Brentford seem able to weather the storms of the division pretty well. There's also a lesson for us that new players can take a long time to bed in. I think that this is the first Brentford interview for a while that hasn't mentioned Benham's statistical approach. Is that taking a back seat? Looking at the highlights of the Rotherham-Brentford Ryan Woods seemed to be pulling the strings from midfield.

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