+€192m in squad value since 2021 – how Frank’s Brentford outsmart PL rivals on and off the pitch

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€80m spent on new players 

Despite an impressive opening-day win over Crystal Palace, Brentford go into Sunday’s clash against Liverpool at Anfield fully aware of the fact that every point counts in this season’s Premier League. After an impressive debut season in the top-flight in 2021/22, when Thomas Frank’s side finished thirteenth on 46 points, only to then go one step further and finish ninth the following campaign on 59 points, Brentford then slumped down to sixteenth last season with a points tally that had them sitting precariously close to the bottom three. This season, perhaps more than any other, will be the one that proves whether the club and their highly-regarded head coach can bounce back from adversity and climb back into the top half of the table or are destined to fall as quickly as they once rose. And to no great surprise, that could all come down to the club’s business in the transfer market. 

So far this summer, Brentford have spent no less than €80 million on new players – the highest amount the club have spent in their history – with the signing of Liverpool pair Fábio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg, alongside new centre forward Igor Thiago from Club Brugge. Not only that, but the new signings also make up three of the club’s top five most expensive transfers ever. And there’s every chance that the club may add to that tally if star striker Ivan Toney is sold in the coming days, especially when we consider that the aforementioned new striker, Thiago, recently picked up an injury that will rule him out of action until “late 2024” according to the club. To no great surprise, the club have spent big in the hope of getting back up the league table. But what should bring hope to fans of the Bees is that each of their new signings is a young player with bags of potential. And if there’s one thing that Frank and Brentford have proved over the last three seasons, it’s that they know how to develop unproven prospects into Premier League stars. 

Indeed, when it comes to buying low and developing players into bigger stars, there are few clubs in the Premier League that are as good at it as Brentford. When we tally up the market value increases of each player in Frank’s squad since they joined the club it comes to a total figure of +€192m. And as we can see in the table above, that’s the fifth best return for overall market value on squad players in the entire English top-flight. However, when we consider how much of a percentage increase that is we can see that Brentford’s players have increased by a combined 45% – which is the highest return in the division and well above the likes of Brighton, Aston Villa or Liverpool. In other words, no club is as effective at developing talents and in the process adding market value to their players as Brentford have been in recent years. 

When we take a look through Frank’s squad we can find plenty of examples to showcase this. The most obvious one is, of course, Toney, whose market value has increased by a remarkable €49.6m since he made the move to Brentford in 2020. But the striker is certainly not alone in enjoying his time in west London. As we can see in the table above, Bryan Mbeumo has seen his market value increase by €36.5m, Mathias Jensen’s has increased by €25.5m and Vitaly Janelt (+€21.4m), Rico Henry (+€18.7m) and Yoane Wissa (+€18m) have all enjoyed similar rises. Not only will these numbers encourage fans in the hope that Frank can get the best out of aforementioned trio of new signings this season, but it also underlines what makes Brentford such an impressive club: they know how to identify impressive young players to sign but also have a head coach in Frank that knows how to develop them despite working in the high-pressure environment that is the Premier League. 

This has allowed Brentford to punch above their weight off the pitch and as a result pick up more points on it. Since winning promotion to the Premier League, the London club have spent €239.8m on new signings, which ranks them seventeenth among all clubs in England in that period – most notably behind clubs like Southampton, Leeds United and Burnley who have experienced relegation in that time. And when we consider the club’s spending over the last three seasons and the points they won in each of those campaigns, Brentford’s cost per point won is really quite impressive. In their first season in the top-flight they ranked seventh with €5.75m spent per point won, then rose to second in the 22/23 campaign with just €4.47m spent per point. And even though they perhaps underperformed in the previous season, Frank’s side still ranked sixth in the league for the lowest amount of money spent per point won, having spent €6.77m. Should they continue that impressive trend of being one of the most efficient Premier League clubs on and off the pitch, there’s little doubt that Frank and his team will bounce back and be aiming for another top-half finish in the league this season.