Traders in the lost Art!
Jan 11, 2026
When all about you are losing their heads, some clubs (not many) always trade well and still find bargains in an inflated transfer market.
Brentford sold two players last summer for circa £126m that had cost them a combined £13m, after they had contributed 94 goals and 26 assists. They also lost their club captain and main defensive midfielder and head coach and several of his staff. They were being tipped by all and sundry for relegation and called crazy for appointing their set piece coach to the senior role. The truth is that they are stronger than ever, sit a scarcely believable 5th in the EPL this morning and are a better group, with more strength in depth than for any previous campaign in the toughest league in the world. Brentford are a tiny club, prior to 2021 they had not played in the top flight of English football since 1947 and they had spent 59 of 60 seasons in the 3rd or 4th tier until 2014.
They do not have a mega rich owner, he is wealthy by "normal" standards, but a pauper in EPL terms and the club operate on a bottom 3-5 budget and will continue to do so, but a 6th successive top flight season already appears booked and they have not spent a single day in the drop zone since promotion!
They cannot compete with the mega budgets of the Big 6 clubs or even the next level of clubs, but regularly beat them by thinking differently and outside of the traditional (penalty) box!
The club will never pay more than they think a player is worth, or sell for less than their own valuation. Those are hard and fast rules. Over the last 12 years they have risen from League 1 to the cusp of European football ,whilst having traded at a profit, building a new stadium and a squad worth a conservative £500m. With little debt, some of which has recently been reduced and all of it "soft". They have been able to up their spending when needed and spent £40m + on a player this season (they will still record profits and possibly one of the highest ever in the EPL) and £33m for Igor Thiago in 2024. He completely missed his first season injured, but is the second highest goal scorer in the EPL currently, with 16 goals, four behind Erling Haaland but six ahead of the third best.
He follows in another long line of goalscorers unearthed by the Bees.... Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney, Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo all of whom have been sold for a massive profit. In fact, the five, including Thiago, were bought for less than the fee that Newcastle paid for Wissa alone.
What other EPL club signs a player for £1m, or will sign another for £15-20m (especially when that is still a big fee for the Bees) and be happy for them to take time, maybe 12-24 months to grow and develop as player and man, but with a long term plan to still feature in the team ?
All the aforementioned players are now big names, but I would like to mention two others who highlight even more what Brentford are all about. Latest player to get more media attention is 21 year old Ukrainian midfielder Yehor Yarmolyuk. He was signed in July 2022 for circa 1.6m € from Dnipro-1, such was his impact within the club and belief in his abilities, promise and potential that he was given a new 5 year contract with a one year option just a year later and then another six year deal with one year option in May last year, which could tie him to the club until until 2032, but of course it won't and the reality is that he will be plying his trade at one of the biggest clubs in Europe within a year or two and Brentford will be banking another huge transfer fee. Vitaly Janelt is older at 27 and he was signed from the German second division for cica £500k where he was not even a regular starter and supporters of his club Bochum said at the time that Brentford had overpaid and were mad! He has played over 200 games for the Bees, 150 + in the EPL and he has been playing his best football ever in the last month or so.
Brentford and Brighton and to an increasing level Bournemouth, have changed the way even the biggest clubs operate, especially in the transfer market, they have been hugely influential and will continue to be so, as they are still growing and developing. For Brentford Europe awaits, if not this season, then soon, no rush, the Bees are going to be around for a long time!
Good luck!
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