Correlation FC

Brentford player flow in the Thomas Frank era

Every season, every team goes through some level of transition. Players leave - sometimes for big money, sometimes in search of more playing time elsewhere, sometimes just needing a change of scenery. Those departures create opportunities for new players.

The summer of 2025 has been a busy time for Brentford. We'll take a look at the incoming and outgoing players closer to the start of the 2025-26 Premier League season.

For this story, we're going to look at the flow of players through the team over the course of Thomas Frank's 7 seasons in charge of the Bees. It was of course an important time for the Bees, moving from mid-table in the Championship to 2 top half finishes in the Premier League.

We'll start with our visualisation of these 7 years, and then break down some of the highlights. It's worth noting that we've made some editorial decisions regarding who is/isn't shown for a given year, often excluding players who rarely played or transferred out after the season had begun, or, including players who were injured for an entire season.

Player transition at Brentford from 2018-19 to 2024-25 (source FBref.com, Correlation FC)

2018-19

The squad that Frank inherited from Dean Smith had some big names that are familiar to Bees supporters – Maupay, Watkins, Benraham, Canos, Henry, Dasilva and Bech. However, the end of the season saw a significant exodus with 11 players departing, more than any other season we've reviewed.

2019-20

Frank's first full season in charge ended in heartbreak at Wembley. Watkins and Benrahma were both sold for hefty transfer fees at the end of the season. Significantly though, the Bees brought in a large group of players who would play a massive role over the coming seasons, adding Jansson, Jensen, Mbeumo, Norgaard, Pinnock, Raya and Roerslev. That core group of players helped get the team promoted and stay in the Premier League. Pontus Jansson and Christian Norgaard both served as captains for the team with many of the others making up the team's leadership group for seasons to come.

The middle years brought relative stability

After the big squad changes in Frank's first 2 seasons, the next several years were periods of relative stability with less squad churn. Over this period, the Bees did add a few new key players – first Toney, Wissa, Janelt then later Mee, Damsgaard and Collins – important for adding new layers as Frank often spoke of. The Bees also occasionally used loans and short term contracts to fill key gaps (Eriksen, Maupay, Reguilon) but the majority of the players came and stayed for 3 or more seasons.

How did Frank's period in charge end?

While the transfer window between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons saw the departure of Ivan Toney, there weren't a lot of other departures. At the same time, the Bees brought in a lot of new players. Some like van den Berg and Kayode earned regular playing time immediately. Others, like Konak, Kim and Nunes are typical Brentford signings – young players who will need time to grow and develop, while others like Thiago were held back by injury setbacks. Time will tell which of those new signings will go on to have lengthy and memorable careers with the Bees.

A word about Rico and Josh

The longest lines on the graphic belong to long time Bees, Rico Henry and Josh Dasilva. Henry is the only player who was at Brentford before Frank arrived AND after he left. Dasilva has obviously struggled with injuries in recent years, but has been a fixture at the club since 2018. Let's hope that both players are able to stay healthy and use those talented left feet for the Bees for many more years to come.

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