Departures of Thomas Frank and Bryan Mbeumo among others mean uncertainty is unavoidable this season
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 18th (NB: this is not necessarily John Brewin’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season’s position: 10th
The summer has seen Brentford transformed from established and admired club to being the enigma they once arrived in the Premier League as. If anything, even less is known about what awaits them than back in 2021. The departure of Thomas Frank removed the club’s public face, someone who embodied and fronted the rise of one of London’s smaller concerns. Without him, uncertainty is unavoidable.
Frank was a huge asset to the club, bordering on irreplaceable and so, Brentford must do things differently, as always under the club’s idiosyncratic majority ownership. There is heavy trust in the process that benefactor Matthew Benham employed to establish Brentford, while Phil Giles is a highly respected sporting director, at the club for over a decade. The pair met in a different sphere, the world of sporting statistics for betting purposes. Their great gamble this summer is to replace Frank with a rookie manager in Keith Andrews, appointed from within. Many external punters now fancy Brentford for the drop.
