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Jordan Henderson (signed for Brentford)

jlove said:
Brentford fan here, popping over to see your reactions to the news about our potential signing of Jordan Henderson, so please accept my apologies. Even greater apologies as my family is from North Shields, so I was brought up with another team pressed upon me, even though Brentford was near where we lived. I’m a frequent visitor to NS, and been to a few games at the SoL… as well as the other place.

There’s a number of questions "why Brentford?" We’re, like Brighton, owned by a man who’s made his money from analysing and selling sports data to the betting industry, Matthew Benham (also a relatively local boy). This means, in addition to the Academy, buying young talent, developing them and selling them on, e.g. Bryan Mbeumo. We’ve always had some older players who are role models and mentors.

This summer, we’ve lost Ben Mee (CB, 35); Mark Flekken (GK, 32); Christian Nørgaard (DCM, 31), all respected professionals, vocal and mentors. So, replacing them with a player who ticks all the boxes, persuading him to get released by Ajax and who will know about ‘The Brentford Project’ though young players we’ve bought from Liverpool, makes a lot of sense to us. He’ll get as much game time as he can; we’ve got 2 young DCM’s, 21 & 19, coming through.

I appreciate I’ll get some abuse but be gentle with me.
Click to expand...
Henderson wants to play so he can get in the England squad. My guess is Sunderland didn't want him but who knows if that will prove a poor decision. Stay with us mate as I for one have not watvhed much Premier League football recently. Any insights would be useful.
 

jlove said:
Brentford fan here, popping over to see your reactions to the news about our potential signing of Jordan Henderson, so please accept my apologies. Even greater apologies as my family is from North Shields, so I was brought up with another team pressed upon me, even though Brentford was near where we lived. I’m a frequent visitor to NS, and been to a few games at the SoL… as well as the other place.

There’s a number of questions "why Brentford?" We’re, like Brighton, owned by a man who’s made his money from analysing and selling sports data to the betting industry, Matthew Benham (also a relatively local boy). This means, in addition to the Academy, buying young talent, developing them and selling them on, e.g. Bryan Mbeumo. We’ve always had some older players who are role models and mentors.

This summer, we’ve lost Ben Mee (CB, 35); Mark Flekken (GK, 32); Christian Nørgaard (DCM, 31), all respected professionals, vocal and mentors. So, replacing them with a player who ticks all the boxes, persuading him to get released by Ajax and who will know about ‘The Brentford Project’ though young players we’ve bought from Liverpool, makes a lot of sense to us. He’ll get as much game time as he can; we’ve got 2 young DCM’s, 21 & 19, coming through.

I appreciate I’ll get some abuse but be gentle with me.
Click to expand...
Hope he does well with you lot. All the best
 
jlove said:
Brentford fan here, popping over to see your reactions to the news about our potential signing of Jordan Henderson, so please accept my apologies. Even greater apologies as my family is from North Shields, so I was brought up with another team pressed upon me, even though Brentford was near where we lived. I’m a frequent visitor to NS, and been to a few games at the SoL… as well as the other place.

There’s a number of questions "why Brentford?" We’re, like Brighton, owned by a man who’s made his money from analysing and selling sports data to the betting industry, Matthew Benham (also a relatively local boy). This means, in addition to the Academy, buying young talent, developing them and selling them on, e.g. Bryan Mbeumo. We’ve always had some older players who are role models and mentors.

This summer, we’ve lost Ben Mee (CB, 35); Mark Flekken (GK, 32); Christian Nørgaard (DCM, 31), all respected professionals, vocal and mentors. So, replacing them with a player who ticks all the boxes, persuading him to get released by Ajax and who will know about ‘The Brentford Project’ though young players we’ve bought from Liverpool, makes a lot of sense to us. He’ll get as much game time as he can; we’ve got 2 young DCM’s, 21 & 19, coming through.

I appreciate I’ll get some abuse but be gentle with me.
Click to expand...

Welcome and please keep involved. Loads of good posters from other clubs on here. I would say there are some similarities between our clubs. We've also been promoted via the play offs, think our target was the same as what Brentford achieved it in, 5 years. We did it in 3 and with very little outlay on players and with a lower quartile wage bill (I think). Quite an achievement amongst the PL parachute clubs.

The next part of the journey will be just as tricky, i.e sticking in the Premier League. We know that all 6 promoted sides from the two previous seasons were subsequently
relegated. The gap has grown.

We've been very busy and have recruited an additional dof and a new assistant head coach who both have excellent credentials, to assist the existing team. 6 players recruited so far and more to follow. Only one of the newcomers has PL experience, Adingra from Brighton. But the other lads have all played at top clubs in Spain, France, Italy and Belgium etc. As I've posted it's possible our Owner has been out voted on the Henderson deal (if we were ever actually interested). Apparently our 2 DOFs, the head coach and Owner all have to be harmonised on a player before a target/signing is approved. Rumours in January were our owner Kyrill Louis-Dreyfuss was keen on a return for JH but that our Dof was not, could just have been paper talk though.
 
Has Henderson made any noise about coming back here? I’m fairly sure that had he wanted it to happen, he’d be here already, he doesn’t need the money, he could afford to take whatever we were offering, and he’d be guaranteed a great reception. You’ve got to assume he either, wanted to be somewhere else, or wanted more than we would be willing to pay.
 
The lad from the echo said we have no interest in him in the other day and that turned out to be the case.

Think the previous signings of Graham and Leadbitter have put the regime off buying former players.
 
jimb said:
The lad from the echo said we have no interest in him in the other day and that turned out to be the case.

Think the previous signings of Graham and Leadbitter have put the regime off buying former players.
Click to expand...

I think the regime are bright enough to understand the difference in players and also that they shouldn't take responsibility for Stewart Donald signings.
 
I don't think the club or player himself wanted the move .The club will be able to tell the split in the fans who want him and those who don't and wont want to cause any disharmony. The player himself is probably thinking he's in an even worse situation if things don't go to plan and he would be the one who ends up getting all the grief. Just my thoughts on it.
 
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We will likely never know at least until he retires and the dust settles. I do think we would have benefited from his leadership and experience but perhaps they were worried it would block a path for the young lads.

Disappointing but we move on.
 
Hot Since 82 said:
The next part of the journey will be just as tricky, i.e sticking in the Premier League. We know that all 6 promoted sides from the two previous seasons were subsequently
relegated. The gap has grown.
Click to expand...
We recruited and prepared for the PL for a couple of seasons before actual promotion – our owner plans long term, 3-5 years, where our DoF (Phil Giles, previously a STH at SJP!) effectively runs the whole footballing side, with Lee Dykes, Technical Director, heading up the recruitment team (he’s done a few in-depth interviews, if you’re interested).

What you’ll find is the PL is faster and more technical that you’ve ever imagined… it’s scary! I hope your management has planned for survival and not thought going gung-ho will give results. Our style of play has evolved season by season, even though winning our first game (Arsenal 2-0) set us off well, from a pragmatic ‘low block and quick break’ through to, after 4 seasons, more possession and high press, with the ability to revert when necessary. We suffered a big injury crisis in the third season and the lack of quality in depth caused us real problems.

Looking from the inside, the promoted sides either have a decently-bonded squad of insufficient quality or have spent a lot on generally better quality players who take time to bond. I’m guessing you’re in the second group. The only club that’s recently survived with that strategy has been Florist - they signed so many players, took a long time to stabilise and they made it but it’s cost a fortune from the fat Greek criminal (can you tell we don’t like them?). IMHO you need to have a PL defence first and foremost and a real goal-poacher to grab you sufficient points... 38 0-0 draws will work!

Due to my Tyneside connections (Dad’s family and my first wife from Marsden), I’m up there as frequently as I can. Unfortunately, my sister (a Canadian citizen) is coming over and so I have commitments over the weekend of our game up there… I’ll miss the F&C on the fish quay!
 
jlove said:
Brentford fan here, popping over to see your reactions to the news about our potential signing of Jordan Henderson, so please accept my apologies. Even greater apologies as my family is from North Shields, so I was brought up with another team pressed upon me, even though Brentford was near where we lived. I’m a frequent visitor to NS, and been to a few games at the SoL… as well as the other place.

There’s a number of questions "why Brentford?" We’re, like Brighton, owned by a man who’s made his money from analysing and selling sports data to the betting industry, Matthew Benham (also a relatively local boy). This means, in addition to the Academy, buying young talent, developing them and selling them on, e.g. Bryan Mbeumo. We’ve always had some older players who are role models and mentors.

This summer, we’ve lost Ben Mee (CB, 35); Mark Flekken (GK, 32); Christian Nørgaard (DCM, 31), all respected professionals, vocal and mentors. So, replacing them with a player who ticks all the boxes, persuading him to get released by Ajax and who will know about ‘The Brentford Project’ though young players we’ve bought from Liverpool, makes a lot of sense to us. He’ll get as much game time as he can; we’ve got 2 young DCM’s, 21 & 19, coming through.

I appreciate I’ll get some abuse but be gentle
Click to expand...

jlove said:
Brentford fan here, popping over to see your reactions to the news about our potential signing of Jordan Henderson, so please accept my apologies. Even greater apologies as my family is from North Shields, so I was brought up with another team pressed upon me, even though Brentford was near where we lived. I’m a frequent visitor to NS, and been to a few games at the SoL… as well as the other place.

There’s a number of questions "why Brentford?" We’re, like Brighton, owned by a man who’s made his money from analysing and selling sports data to the betting industry, Matthew Benham (also a relatively local boy). This means, in addition to the Academy, buying young talent, developing them and selling them on, e.g. Bryan Mbeumo. We’ve always had some older players who are role models and mentors.

This summer, we’ve lost Ben Mee (CB, 35); Mark Flekken (GK, 32); Christian Nørgaard (DCM, 31), all respected professionals, vocal and mentors. So, replacing them with a player who ticks all the boxes, persuading him to get released by Ajax and who will know about ‘The Brentford Project’ though young players we’ve bought from Liverpool, makes a lot of sense to us. He’ll get as much game time as he can; we’ve got 2 young DCM’s, 21 & 19, coming through.

I appreciate I’ll get some abuse but be gentle with me.
Click to expand...
See you in The Lord Nelson
 
jimb said:
The lad from the echo said we have no interest in him in the other day and that turned out to be the case.

Think the previous signings of Graham and Leadbitter have put the regime off buying former players.
Click to expand...
Defoe... I think they were pretty pissed off about that.
They don't really do signings to keep the media happy
 
jlove said:
We recruited and prepared for the PL for a couple of seasons before actual promotion – our owner plans long term, 3-5 years, where our DoF (Phil Giles, previously a STH at SJP!) effectively runs the whole footballing side, with Lee Dykes, Technical Director, heading up the recruitment team (he’s done a few in-depth interviews, if you’re interested).

What you’ll find is the PL is faster and more technical that you’ve ever imagined… it’s scary! I hope your management has planned for survival and not thought going gung-ho will give results. Our style of play has evolved season by season, even though winning our first game (Arsenal 2-0) set us off well, from a pragmatic ‘low block and quick break’ through to, after 4 seasons, more possession and high press, with the ability to revert when necessary. We suffered a big injury crisis in the third season and the lack of quality in depth caused us real problems.

Looking from the inside, the promoted sides either have a decently-bonded squad of insufficient quality or have spent a lot on generally better quality players who take time to bond. I’m guessing you’re in the second group. The only club that’s recently survived with that strategy has been Florist - they signed so many players, took a long time to stabilise and they made it but it’s cost a fortune from the fat Greek criminal (can you tell we don’t like them?). IMHO you need to have a PL defence first and foremost and a real goal-poacher to grab you sufficient points... 38 0-0 draws will work!

Due to my Tyneside connections (Dad’s family and my first wife from Marsden), I’m up there as frequently as I can. Unfortunately, my sister (a Canadian citizen) is coming over and so I have commitments over the weekend of our game up there… I’ll miss the F&C on the fish quay!
Click to expand...

Yes, we spent the second half or more of the season just ended, including the play off games doing the low block thing. We already have two lightening quick strikers, one of whom, Mayenda (just turned 20) is an absolute beast and improving at a crazy rate every time he plays, his confidence is as big as his ability. All the players we've added so far are highly technical and warp speed quick. We will be doing precisely as you describe, low black and rapid transitions. We won't be trying to outplay sides and we will happily concede possession, even though all the signings look well capable of playing. Our head coach Le Bris is a seriously deep thinker and strategist, the new AHC has been at AC Milan, Fiorentina and Inter so looks like he will help the first team set up too. The level of professionalism from the ownership group all the way down to the ball boys at Sunderland is literally night and day compared with when we were relegated from the Premier League.

On the first team squad we've also been trying to upgrade our first choice GK and no doubt the next set of signings will be defenders of the desired standard, particularly at centre half and ideally that keeper. Thought we had Petrovic from Chelsea for £25M but he's considering multiple options.
 
jlove said:
Brentford fan here, popping over to see your reactions to the news about our potential signing of Jordan Henderson, so please accept my apologies. Even greater apologies as my family is from North Shields, so I was brought up with another team pressed upon me, even though Brentford was near where we lived. I’m a frequent visitor to NS, and been to a few games at the SoL… as well as the other place.

There’s a number of questions "why Brentford?" We’re, like Brighton, owned by a man who’s made his money from analysing and selling sports data to the betting industry, Matthew Benham (also a relatively local boy). This means, in addition to the Academy, buying young talent, developing them and selling them on, e.g. Bryan Mbeumo. We’ve always had some older players who are role models and mentors.

This summer, we’ve lost Ben Mee (CB, 35); Mark Flekken (GK, 32); Christian Nørgaard (DCM, 31), all respected professionals, vocal and mentors. So, replacing them with a player who ticks all the boxes, persuading him to get released by Ajax and who will know about ‘The Brentford Project’ though young players we’ve bought from Liverpool, makes a lot of sense to us. He’ll get as much game time as he can; we’ve got 2 young DCM’s, 21 & 19, coming through.

I appreciate I’ll get some abuse but be gentle with me.
Click to expand...

Depends what question you're asking?

If you're asking "why Brentford" then you've actually answered every question.
It makes perfect sense for both your club and Henderson, especially the 'game time' as that appears to be really important to him for his England place, and the chance to be a leader / mentor.
Truthfully it seems like a great fit for both club and player.

If you're asking "why not Sunderland?" then that's a bit more complex, but there are blokes on here who know him well and from what was passed on he approached the club last year but for some reason there was a bit of a falling out between him and our DOF.
There's been no contact from either side since last year.

On the face of it that's really surprising, Henderson to SAFC was the most obvious transfer you could imagine, it's exactly what we've always done, but as you might have seen our new owners are not acting in the same way as previous ones, and they've gone down a very (dare I say it) Brentford / Brighton path in their transfers in.
The one thing he wouldn't be guaranteed here is game time.

I'd have like to have seen him back, but the new owners need to be supported to the hilt so here we are.

Only time will tell us whether all parties made the right choice.
 
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