Thomas Frank has been Brentford boss for long enough to know losing his star players is in the job description.
First it was Ollie Watkins, whose performances in the Championship convinced Aston Villa to splash out £33million on the forward in 2020.
A year later, Said Benrahma swapped west London for the East End to join West Ham. Then this summer, Ivan Toney left for Saudi Arabia.
History tells us we should expect Brentford to bounce back stronger following Toney’s exit.
Bryan Mbeumo will be key if they are to improve on their 16th-place finish last season, by far their worst since promotion in 2021.
Thomas Frank has demonstrated his ability to rebuild after losing key players at Brentford
Ivan Toney departed the club this summer after securing a lucrative move to Al-Ahli
But Bryan Mbeumo appears poised to step into the void as the Bees’ key player this season
Frank would point to an injury crisis and the fact he was without Toney, who was serving a ban for breaking betting rules, and then Mbeumo, whose ankle injury ruled him out for three months from December, as the reason for their drop-off.
Frank believes it was Mbeumo’s absence, rather than Toney’s, that hit his team harder.
‘Last year he was on track to score 15 goals and maybe 12 assists,’ said the Bees boss. ‘When he got injured, he had seven goals and three assists and that was in December.
‘He was the biggest miss last year for four months. We had Ivan out. Of course I still wanted Ivan to be there, but because suddenly we missed our key player.
‘Ivan was out for (nearly) the whole season, so that’s why we couldn’t use him. So I think with Ivan out and then losing Bryan, Ithink that was an even bigger hit.’