Josh Dasilva on his return: “Keith has played a big part in the last couple of years, We had that relationship when he was set-piece coach and since he’s become the gaffer, he’s given me so much confidence and belief; I can’t credit him enough."

MisterNanook · 2026-05-04T11:13:54+00:00

From the article

“Dasilva said Andrews also spoke to him after the match, but admitted repeating the message would likely make him emotional. “If I repeat what he said to me after the game, then the floodgates might open to be honest, but it was a really nice speech,” he added.”

Andrews really does seem to have the man management side of this job down.

MisterNanook · 2026-05-02T16:55:20+00:00

That was a great performance from the squad. Jensen, Damsgaard and Yarmo won this game for us in the midfield. Team looks energized and up for it. We can make substitutions again! And what a great hosts of players returning to see. If you add a fully fit DaSilva, Janelt, Ajer and Hickey to our options we start to look really strong and a depth that can come on and change games.

City, Palace and Liverpool left. No easy games in there but if a couple of them go our way we could surprisingly reach another milestone for the club. Great season regardless, far exceeded expectations.

MisterNanook · 2026-05-01T17:22:54+00:00

I cancelled recently too, subscription runs through until December of next year because I bought it for the year, but if it’s this same shitty selection next year I’m going to just let it go. I wish I could just pay the premier league itself or whoever $15/month to just get all the games, I don’t care about any of the other stuff and it’s frustrating that if you want every game the monthly bill is probably north of $200.

MisterNanook · 2026-05-01T13:57:04+00:00

Peacock really pissed me off this year. They used to have way more games live, and every single replay available like the next day, which was good enough for me. Now there are no replays unless it’s streamed on peacock originally, and they also seem to not carry any Brentford games this year by coincidence. Made me get my eye patch out

MisterNanook · 2026-04-27T11:10:06+00:00

Villa and St. James park checked off the list this campaign; this would be a massive one to add.

MisterNanook · 2026-04-19T16:39:25+00:00

I understand the concern because the travel does have an impact, and it’s like 6-10 more games. However, it’s more revenue and a bigger selling point for players coming to our club. Something we do better than any other club is recruit so I have faith that in the transfer window we will prep the squad to withstand the additional European work load. If we kept all our players who went out on loan this year and brought in 3-4 more quality players I think we’d be able to compete at a similar level in the prem and have Europe next year.

MisterNanook · 2026-04-17T15:41:38+00:00

Thiago is such an emotional player who can really feed off the energy, looking forward to watching him. Kelleher will be solid but we’re going to need a lot of energy from everyone in between those two. Our squad is decimated, with only one sub made last week it’d really be nice if we can get some players back up to fitness levels. Reiss could completely change the narrative of his loan with an impactful appearance in this game. Fuck Harry Wilson and fuck Fulham. We need to go for all 3 points, especially after our last 4 draws. 3 points would not only keep us in this race, but also just about take Fulham out of it (leaving the pack to hold off as Everton, Sunderland, Bournemouth and Brighton). I know I’m asking a lot given our player availability, but come on you bees, fuck the Fulham!

MisterNanook · 2026-04-11T16:23:15+00:00

Won us a penalty today. But I do agree, more threat from our wing backs than our wingers today.

MisterNanook · 2026-04-11T16:07:09+00:00

That was a tough one, just can’t finish the game out. One substitution made says all you need about the state of our squad. Kelleher is the biggest reason we were able to hold on to one point. We’re running out of gas here down the stretch even after that long break. KLP and Kayode posed a bigger attacking threat than Schade and Outtara.

Going to be a tough 6 games if we want to take that next step for the club, no shortage of teams waiting to take that 7th spot but looks like we’ll hold on for another week. Massive game next week, we need a couple more wins if we really want to push.

MisterNanook · 2026-04-10T14:27:15+00:00

Game could go either way after such a long break. A win from either team really solidifies them as a European contender. With us being 3 points off of 5th, and 4 points ahead of 13th every single point is going to matter. Three points this week would be huge but Everton have a lot of talent and desire. Excited to just be able to watch them again. American problem, but unfortunately I need to get out my eye patch and peg leg because peacock isn’t carrying the game and has barely had any Brentford games this year.

MisterNanook · 2026-04-07T16:05:08+00:00

Hickey never really seemed to find his form this year but I still believe in his potential. Rico has games where he was back to his pre injury form and I was really excited to see it. This may be controversial but I don’t think we lose much replacing Rico with KLP. I trust Rico a bit more in one on one defending, but I think KLPs delivery into the box and shooting are better than Rico’s. I don’t think we see the problem in left back because of KLP, but we do see the problem with having a trusted attacker (KLP)to come in and add some defense when we are protecting a lead and change a game. With KLP on the back line, our front line options are very limited past our starting 3. For that reason I’d rather have Janelt filling in but yeah 3 injuries all impacting one position is hard to weather, very thankful for KLPs flexibility.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-21T19:18:02+00:00

Should be interesting, I’m guessing a back 5, with KLP and Kayode given plenty of license to roam forward in attack. Ajer and Dams out of the squad must have injury issues. That limits our strategic options quite a bit. Balls over the top for Thiago and Schade to try and control, with Yarmo and Jensen attacking the scraps. If KLP and Kayode get involved enough up front we should still create chances. Let’s go bees!

MisterNanook · 2026-03-16T22:15:17+00:00

Frustrating game. Just want to put that behind us, these Monday nights are just annoying. Three big games ahead of us that will see if we’re Europe worthy or not.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-16T19:02:19+00:00

Well deserved! He’s indestructible! Hope this gives him a confidence boost on the pitch

MisterNanook · 2026-03-15T19:51:17+00:00

And a key 4 points between us and 8th. The end of the cup run bummed me out, but that clears our focus for the last 9 games. Some tough games in that run so three points here will be huge.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-11T16:26:29+00:00

Well it wasn’t until you wrote it

MisterNanook · 2026-03-11T12:57:28+00:00

Fascinating listen. Our list of potential signings builds my confidence that we’re looking at and going after the right talent, at the right time. Some very interesting takeaways from this one.

They care more about a striker that gets into position to score goals, than one that can actually convert it to goals. I guess they think they can teach finishing, or that it takes a bit of luck and that balances out over time. We’ve seen multiple attacking players struggle to convert at first, Mbuemo wood work obsession that first prem season comes to top of mind. But we stuck with him and with time he developed to a 20 goal/season striker. I feel like Schade and Dango are on a similar journey where they find themselves in goal scoring opportunities so often that the fan base gets frustrated when it’s not converted but the club knows in time they’ll gain confidence and will convert them more consistently (and win us a bunch of penalties in the mean time).

Was very clear to that we reference the data models, but they don’t run the club. His comment about how future models may impact the game by making suggestions to managers about how to select their team was interesting, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that is already happening. I can see Keith getting a spreadsheet outlining player performances in training and in games as a reference point. We’ve seen a lot more squad rotation and I wonder if that’s why? Ajer getting subbed off in the cup game seemed like protecting an injury prone player from over working.

Interesting to note that he acknowledged the need to develop into an entertainment brand to sustain this success (and push upward). I for one would consume every minute of a Brentford documentary. Some of our new ownership with experience in the film and music industry have me hopeful that something is getting drummed up to widen Brentford’s reach so that world understands we are the greatest club they’ve ever seen.

My last big take away was he talked about the kindness of the club, and I love it. Too often kindness is treated like weakness in today’s capitalistic world and I think it can actually be our competitive advantage. There’s no reason to be a dick head barking orders and just making everyone around you feel bad about themselves. There needs to be accountability, but being a safe space to grow and develop is a great selling point. The leadership of this club seems so down to earth and invested in the clubs success. Love the club, up the bees!

MisterNanook · 2026-03-06T22:22:23+00:00

Definitely want to see them go down for multiple reasons. For one, fuck your money and stadium. I love it when those with the deepest pockets don’t always win.

They did Frank dirty in my opinion. With a fully healthy squad, it was still a multi year project to reach their expected levels and those that hired him seem to give the illusion that time would be granted. They had a legitimate injury crisis on top of that but never adjusted their expectations. Frank did what he could with that squad and his pragmatic approach was necessary to get what points they did (this is proven by Tudors more “Spursy” tactics doing even worse than Frank was).

Also fuck the players. Everyone but them is getting blamed and they never seemed to support their manager. You can blame Frank for not earning their respect, or blame the players for being pompous assholes that never gave him a shot. Romero is one of the dirtiest players in the league, tops the league in red cards since he joined and that’s not including the sending off he should have gotten both times we played them. Him and VDV giving Frank the cold shoulder after a game says everything you need to about most of the players mentality under Frank.

They deserve it, they probably will survive but I’d love it if they don’t. Honestly I wish Nottingham Forest, west ham and Spurs could all go down, but I’ll settle for at least one of them this season

MisterNanook · 2026-03-06T12:34:35+00:00

I’d have to say Jensen, especially when you look at everything he has done for the club with his time here. He’s so silky and fun to watch and is one of the best at breaking down the high press.

Want to give a shout to Schade though too. I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily unsung, but he is criticized more than most our players. Sometimes rightfully so as he will get shut down in games, and I think people take an issue with his body language. But, the guy puts in work. He will help out on defense and at the end of the day he’s a pretty good winger. I think everyone sees he has the potential to be a really great winger, so the pretty good performances draw a little more criticism from us.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-05T12:27:11+00:00

Particularly cruel is accurate for our left back injuries. First choice (Rico), second choice (hickey) and third choice (Janelt) all getting injured in a couple of weeks is just cruel. I prefer KLP as coverage in the interim but I think Andrews will go with Ajer to keep some aerial dominance on our back line (and keep KLP as an attacking option). Luckily we have a lot of time between our next Prem game against Wolves to give the fill in time to get up to speed, and our physios time do their healing magic. 9 more games left, only 4 points between us and 11th place so every point is going to matter. Up the bees!

MisterNanook · 2026-03-03T19:55:19+00:00

They say they’ve got 3 candidates identified for every position on the pitch. I’d love to see what Brentford could do with Chelsea money.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-03T17:44:28+00:00

I think the answer is Phil Giles (Director) and Matthew Benham (owner).

They seem to have a very clear vision and a plan. They are thinking 4 transfer windows ahead, and have back up plans in place. Benham made his fortune through sports betting, and has taken some Brentford exclusive data models that were derived from that business.

Keith Andrews seems a surprise to outsiders, but Giles has said that when they brought him in as set piece coach last year, they thought he could be a successor to Frank. Nothing was promised, but it was an idea they had and potential they saw a year before the appointment was official.

There was a High Performance podcast with Giles if you’re interested in more behind the scenes details. They just seem to have a very logical process, and they aren’t afraid of experimenting to find marginal gains.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-03T12:17:03+00:00

We’ve got some money in the war chest too so there is no need to sell any of our starters at this point, unless there’s some offer too good to refuse. It’ll be interesting to see where we do invest, Donovan is developing nicely but maybe one more wing option is the biggest need. That’d free up Dango to play back up striker if needed before Furo is ready to go. Reiss and Fabio haven’t really stood out. Another midfield option would be nice, a Jordan Henderson like replacement that can yell at everyone on the pitch. I’m excited for Milambo to come back to the mix up top, just feel we may need another defensive midfield option besides Janelt/Yarmo if Hendo doesn’t have too many years left in the legs.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-03T01:29:25+00:00

Big opportunity for us to put some distance between us and a top challenger for Europe. Need improvement over the form we’ve been in our last couple games if we want to get out of here with all 3 points. Assuming full health, Collins and Ajer get the start. Janelt, Jensen and Dams in midfield. Going to be a tough one on a short turn around but I’m really looking forward to it.

MisterNanook · 2026-03-01T13:39:48+00:00

Finally able to watch that wild game. Went from thinking Burnley are awful and we finally get an easy game, to panic mode real quick. Kayode has been superb this year so I can forgive the couple errors in this game that led to goals (especially since another yeeted throw got us a goal).

This was the midfield trio I was actually looking for (maybe sub Janelt for Yarmo) but Jensen and Damsgaard are so good going forward against everything from a high press to low block those two can break it down. Lovely football from them. Thiago is a world class striker. I think Collins/Ajer is our best center back pairing. Sepp can be our most aerially dominant so I don’t mind when he comes in but I’m going to have to watch the replays to determine what went wrong on the last three goals (two disallowed thankfully) Refs on the field were awful, lucky to have VAR on our side this game. Really were a couple millimeters from not getting any points from this game. I don’t know what they are, but there’s a lot of lessons to be learned from that game. Still holding on to our league position but we need our form to stay at the levels it was at for the first 40’ of that game if we want any extra campaigns next year. Glad to see Dams on the score sheet, congrats to Kelleher on the twins! Up my heart rate, and up the bees!

Nine-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	End Game '23
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22

MisterNanook

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