2024/25 club preview: Brentford

Football writer Alex Keble assesses each Premier League club and their prospects for the 2024/25 season.

Brentford

Brentford are in a strange kind of limbo, their fans probably finding as many reasons for pessimism as for optimism. 

Securing a fourth consecutive season in the Premier League was mission accomplished last campaign, but it was far from comfortable and Thomas Frank will be concerned by their slide down to 16th, just two places above the relegation zone in the final standings. 

He needs a year of stability and quiet growth if Brentford are to avoid a familiar Premier League story - tread water long enough and eventually you’ll sink. It’s a huge season ahead. 

Performance last season 

Premier League

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
15	Everton EVE	38	-11	40
16	Brentford BRE	38	-9	39
17	Nott'm Forest NFO	38	-18	32
18	Luton LUT	38	-33	26
19	Burnley BUR	38	-37	24
20	Sheffield Utd SHU	38	-69	16

View More

FA Cup: Third round
EFL Cup: Third round

Last five seasons 

Best Premier League finish 

Ninth: 2022/23

See: More about Brentford's history

Season aims  

For a club of Brentford’s resources, safety should be considered a success, and yet Frank will be unhappy if a relegation battle breaks out again. He would love to come close to their club-record Premier League points tally of 59, although their first-season total of 46 is a more realistic target.  

A strong cup run would also give fans something to cheer about. Brentford have only once got past the fourth round of the FA Cup or EFL Cup since their promotion to the top flight in 2021. 

Key transfers  

The signing of striker Igor Thiago for a reported £31million from Club Brugge was a minor coup for Brentford, but he has since been ruled out for several months with a knee injury sustained in his first pre-season match.

The Brazilian, who has been given the No 9 shirt, was widely seen as a replacement for Ivan Toney, whose contract expires next summer, but Toney remains at the club for now at least. Thiago is the only senior signing so far, which isn’t ideal. Brentford need refreshments to avoid stagnation. 

Attacking midfielder Fabio Carvalho has arrived from Liverpool to provide extra creativity for the Bees.

Brentford's key transfers so far

Player	Transfer Type	Club
Igor Thiago	Transfer In	Club Brugge
Shandon Baptiste	Released	-
Saman Ghoddos	Released	-
Julian Eyestone	Transfer In	-
David Raya	Transfer Out	Arsenal
Thomas Strakosha	Transfer Out	AEK Athens
Fabio Carvalho	Transfer In	Liverpool

See: Clubs' summer 2024 transfers

Tactics 

Frank’s football is a pleasing mixture of Germanic hard-pressing and counter-attacks; a pragmatic yet exciting combination that has Brentford enacting pinpoint breaks drilled into muscle memory on the training ground. 

Strong in the air, never afraid to go long but intelligent and progressive in how they do so, Brentford are different to their rivals in the bottom half of the Premier League. 

Injury report

See: Latest injuries and news

Pre-season results & fixtures

20 July Wimbledon 2-5 Brentford Report
25 July Benfica 1-1 Brentford Report
30 July Estrela da Amadora 3-1 Brentford Report
3 Aug Watford 1-1 Brentford Report
9 Aug v Wolfsburg (H) Details

What the manager says

Thomas Frank: “Everyone should be very motivated to go into the Premier League season because you can take nothing for granted and you have to really, really look forward to it. 

“That said, like with everything, even when it is the best thing in the world, when you've done it a few times you get more used to it. This is good, in a way, so you can trust yourself - but it's still important to freshen it up a little bit. That can be players, that can be drills we're changing, that can be meetings, so we have tried to do that."

Best XI (4-3-3)

Mark Flekken; Mads Roerslev, Ethan Pinnock, Nathan Collins, Rico Henry; Vitaly Janelt, Mathias Jensen, Christian Norgaard; Bryan Mbeumo, Ivan Toney, Kevin Schade

Opening PL fixtures

Brentford

15:00 Sat 23 Nov EVE (A) 15:00 Sat 30 Nov LEI (H) 20:15 Wed 04 Dec AVL (A) 15:00 Sat 07 Dec NEW (H) 19:00 Sun 15 Dec CHE (A)

Brentford

15:00 Sat 23 Nov EVE (A) 15:00 Sat 30 Nov LEI (H) 20:15 Wed 04 Dec AVL (A) 15:00 Sat 07 Dec NEW (H) 19:00 Sun 15 Dec CHE (A)

Kits

See: More details at Brentford's online store

Where will they finish?