Times reports Brentford to sack Warburton at the end of the season

[SeasideKurt]

What a bizarre situation.

If you haven't got anything to say, don't mess the fans around by saying fuck all different to what has already been said.

 

[Millersfan]

What the fuck is that statement about

 

[HertsWolf]

What the statement should have said:
"Brentford FC is aware of the ridiculous press speculation about the future of our manager for the next five years, Mark Warburton.
Given Mark’s increasing profile within the game, we recognise that he will deservedly have turned the heads of other clubs.
As with every other sensibly run club, we plan for various possible eventualities. These eventualities include electrocuting the representatives of clubs who think that we will release Mr Warburton.
We are a progressive club who do talk to other people within the game to learn about other ways of doing things, and to consider novel strategic approaches to the game. Unless we want advice on Hitler's Diaries or what Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool players have been drinking, photographing or tweeting, typically our researches do not include either The Times or the inexecrable Daily Mail. Brentford FC is more likely to get progressive, strategic footballing advice from the pages of Classic Car Monthly, What Mortgage or a leaflet advertising frozen Lidl lobster at £6.99.
Mr Warburton will be leaving this club over our immobile, frozen dead bodies. Unless he has used offensive language to or with anyone and his emails have been hacked.
Journalism is sometimes called a sleazy cesspit, lacking morals, ethics or any empathy with real football supporters outside the Premier League. Journalists start gossip, rumours and reports of the coldest, hardest winter storms since record began, most days of the week. These stories spread like wildfire, whether or not such rumours are true, because when the lead story on radio is Ed Miliband speaking at a Chamber of Commerce dinner, you know there's not a lot happening in the entire fucking universe.
There are no discussions, so nothing to disclose. Mark Warburton will be Brentford's manager for at least three days after The Mail and the Times do comprehensive, accurate reporting of football outside the Premier League.
Mark Warburton remains our manager. If you want him, come prepared and in an armoured convoy escorted by the RAF.
The team’s performance has been magnificent this season and that is primarily down to Mark’s leadership.
Mark will continue to lead the club in its push for Premier League football."

 

[HertsWolf]

On the other hand, maybe Brentford are planning a swoop for Lee Clark.

 

[Joe Sullivan]

if true it's a bad decision. Could unnerve the players for Watford tonight

 

[Frank]

Fucking horrible, absolutely horrible. He must have his own plans to do one as this all seems very amicable. We have one of the most exciting managers in the country, I really hope this isn't true.

 

[Ibby]

Off to QPR apparently.

 

[Mr Elmo]

Fernandes did put out that mysterious tweet about having their dream manager potentially coming, it could happen realistically but for Brentford's sake I want him to stay, doing great in the time he has been there and changing it could see them slip off this season unles the next manager would be someone as good or better.

 

[Frank]

Apparently they're linked with Laudrup? Makes no sense to go to QPR, especially if he stays until the end of the season.

 

[Super_horns]

Loyalty should work both ways - you wouldn't blame him for looking at other jobs if this is true.

 

[Frank]

Every sensible club should always look for a replacement, it'd be negligent not to always have someone in mind. To me that statement suggests Warbs wants to leave and so we've upped the pressure on finding a new boss which when doing so will always get through to the press. I just hope if he leaves it's for a big job because I don't see a club in this division or in the bottom half of the Prem with more potential than us or as good of a set up.

 

[mpmbee]

A really good overview of what is going on has been posted on our forum, what a mess


Warburton & Benham: Summary and Analysis
Morning all,

We've decided to close the other thread and provide a summary/analysis here to save people trawling through a thousand posts.

Summary of Events:

1. Last week a story appeared in the Spanish Press from respected football journalist Antonio Fuentes. He reported that Brentford had held talks with Paco Jémez, the Rayo Vallecano coach, about the manager’s job at Griffin Park starting next season.
2. This sensational story was somehow picked-up from Twitter by GPGer thenightfly and then substantiated by hanworthbee,
3. What is certain is that these posts were read by the Football Management team on the GPG and that's where events started to unfold.

But where did the story really begin?...we'll come to that later.

So what happened after the above? GPG Towers understands that discussions between the two relevant parties didn't provide the Team Management with assurances that they were looking for…and that's where the whole kit and kaboodle started to unravel....and both parties agreed to go their separate ways.


Who Leaked This Info and Why?
We can all agree that the emergence of this story - with fine details to establish its verity, has been destructive to the club. Notwithstanding that it happened on a match-day against a promotion rival. Now would do such a thing? Perhaps a disgruntled Team Management member after browsing the GPG (as above) would make sense. No-one else would have the motivation.

In fact, there is substantial circumstantial evidence that this all originated from the Sporting Director. Let's join the dots. Tony Evans is Football Editor of The Times....guess which club he is all over... The Anfield Rap Guess which of our Football Management team would have connections with this rabid Liverpool Supporter? Not hard is it? It's fair to say that this has been viewed as unforgiveable and we don't expect to see Frank around for much longer.

What is the Background?
Now this is difficult and we will have to dance around the edges....a lot. What has been clear from past utterances is that Matthew is a firm believer in the European football management model (Director of Football etc.) and very anti the traditional English model where the Manager is King and the Chairman/Owner is consigned to the boardroom with his G&T entertaining clients of his Haulage company.

Given the timing of these events it can readily be inferred that the January transfer window was the catalyst. The fact that the transfer window was relatively quiet for us would lead us to suggest that one party or the other was disappointed that a fair few players didn't arrive.

The rumour mill has it that Matthew has made an absolute fortune recently and is in a position to increase his already substantial investment in our club. When you inspect the League Table and note how close the top of it is, and consider that an improvement in league position gets us from a play-off position (which has a 1 in 4 chance of promotion) to an automatic position (which, of course, is guaranteed promotion) then the difference in return between 3nd and 2nd place is.....substantial.

On the other hand it is clear that the Team Management puts great store in "team spirit" and firmly believes that bringing in any new players will disrupt the playing squad to such an extent that it will ruin any chance of promotion that we currently have.
So there you have two….rather opposing views and it’s not hard to conceive that that is the core of the issue.

As a point of reference, we are reliably informed that Midtjylland have been completely receptive to new ideas from MB and that in six months at Midtjylland there's been more buy-in to new ideas and more open-mindedness than in 8 years of MB’s influence at Brentford. As BURFORD BEE posted“I think many of us are blinded by our gratitude to MB and forget that he didn't get to where he is now by being influenced by sentiment or by not making difficult and unpleasant decisions. The top people in business are always ahead of the game, they have the answer to a problem before the rest of us are even aware that one exists.”One has to be ahead of the competition - and that has been ridiculed in the leaks to The Times with focus on Sleep Gurus and the like - but if you don't change you can't improve. And if BFC aren’t open to new ideas and getting ahead of the competition, and if MB sees Midtjylland getting ahead then perhaps he is right to question those that he hands his millions over to.

The PR Battle
Well, it's 7-0 to the Breadman and the other side haven't even got out of the dressing room yet.

It kicked-off in The Times followed by an own-goal of a Press Release (which came from outside PR experts) that has been called shit from every supporter; the highest levels in the club; and by the Players given the planned goal celebration in the Watford match was going to be a rendition of YMCA by the Village People in response to the rather bizarre "football is a village" nonsense.

It continued with the dignified Warburton interview with Billy Reeves and then by wheeling out players on Sky Sports and to the Press to remind everyone how great the Manager is.

Meanwhile Matthew seems to have been stunned into silence or very poorly advised. Where was the pre-emptive interview before the match on Tuesday by Chairman Crown? That's his job to step-in and get the view of the owner across to the press before letting them loose on a matchday. Instead we seem to be reduced to Benham tweeting at 3AM promising some sort of update in a few days. We suspect MB is going through the wringer at the moment, and considering what he has done for us supporters he can be consider severely let down.

We should not forget that the various news briefing to The Times and subsequently to the local press must have had the at least the tacit approval of the First Team Manager. At no point has MW stuck-up for our owner. Where are the comment such as "we have the best owner ever"; "we are very lucky to have Matthew" etc?

Of course Matthew is in a virtually impossible situation now, he can't say what's happening without slagging off the people who will be running his club for the next 6 months. It will interesting to see what MB has planned...but...well...what would you do. Maybe that's why MB needs a few days to consider what to do. I guess you don't encounter situations like this in the dark world of statistical analysis....


What Happens Next
We know that there was an Emergency BFC Board Meeting today that Matthew attended. We had to look up who is a Director these days. Here goes

Cliff Crown Chairman (Smartodds)
Donald Kerr Vice-Chairman (Bees United)
David Merritt Non Executive Director (Bees United)
Mike Power Non Executive Director
Nity Raj Non Executive Director (Smartodds)
Philip Whall Non Executive Director (Smartodds)Our understanding of BFC Board Meeting these days is that it generally goes "The following is what Matthew has decided...." and all the Smartodds people will have already known what happened. So this have been an update for the Bees United nominees and it might be interesting to hear from our supporter representatives on the BFC board. Nice thought eh? We are sure that the non-Smartodds directors are as much shocked by events as we all are - which raises governance questions of its own.

Back to the important relationships, we can surmise that it is very cordial between Benham, Warbs and Weir - otherwise the latter two would be out of here. From The Times article (which is widely acknowledged to be accurate - very accurate) Matthew has said that they can stay as part of a new structure or they can leave if they so choose. However it is highly unlikely that the Sporting Director will be around for long given that his role at player recruitment is now effectively redundant.


Closing
As one email to GPG Towers stated: it's fair to say that we are all genuinely shocked about this news – it’s like finding out that a couple that you knew had a really rock-solid marriage just announced their divorce....we are all as stunned as every BFC supporter

The next step is Matthew's emergence from his bunker.....now, where's the Downfall parody from The H?

One final thing to consider is - who would we rather have here tomorrow...Warburton or Benham? We all know that there is only one rational answer. And we'd do well to think back to the days after Uwe departed. That's not to be eternally grateful for MW's contribution....not at all.

Disclaimer
As a disclaimer this is not the view or information of any individual connected with the GPG. It is an aggregation of information received those from well connected GPGers. We have posted under a generic username to reflect that. However we can assure you that the above is a very accurate reflection of events and the current situation.​

 

[MagpieBee]

Was about to post this myself. Given everything that has happened in the past, its hardly surprising for Brentford fans to find ourselves in a mess all over again. Could not have imagined anything like this happening just a short time ago at Christmas.

Just got to hope it doesn't affect the team for the rest of the season. Warburton has got us playing superb football, and hopefully we get some sort of reward in a play off place come the end of the season.

Still the best season of being a Brentford supporter we've ever had, but I can't see this dark cloud moving on for quite a while.

 

[HertsWolf]

I just hope if he leaves it's for a big job because I don't see a club in this division or in the bottom half of the Prem with more potential than us or as good of a set up.

Ummm. I can think of about 30 in that category, with "more potential or as good of a set up". Including most clubs in the Championship and all clubs in the Premiership. You've had a good two or three seasons, Rosler and Warbs have created an excellent team, and you may well get promoted to the PL (and I hope you and Bournemouth do) but it's a bit arrogant to claim there isn't club with more potential or a better set up.

Just a year ago, I remember a lot of people raving on about Orient and how they were the next big thing from London. Remind me where they are now.

 

[PDS]

In truth, a 'top' club won't take a gamble on Warburton, he's not fashionable enough, a lower-mid Prem side would likely come in for him (Villa could do a lot worse).

Must be frustrating for career development being a young British manager in the lower leagues, especially one who didn't have a top-level playing career, but people like Mark Warburton will need a West Brom-type club to take a risk before they even think about the next tier (Spurs etc, so not even a top, top club).

 

[ChelloRam]

With all respect, I don't think Warburton has actually achieved much at all, at the moment.
He did a decent job at getting Brentford promoted last season, but the squad was pretty much Rosler's, so he carried on his good work.
If he gets them into the play-offs come the end of the season, that will be his big achievement.

Whats is the general consensus of the Brentford fans?

 

[MagpieBee]

With all respect, I don't think Warburton has actually achieved much at all, at the moment.
He did a decent job at getting Brentford promoted last season, but the squad was pretty much Rosler's, so he carried on his good work.
If he gets them into the play-offs come the end of the season, that will be his big achievement.

Whats is the general consensus of the Brentford fans?

MW was actually the guy to bring in the majority of Rosler's squad, having been Sporting Director before taking over as manager. The way we play football now is also very different to how we played under Rosler, with some fantastic football being played now, as opposed to a very tight defensive team.

I think he's done a fantastic job. We've had many seasons before where we've just failed to get over the promotion line. 2 years ago we were in a great position, but the results drifted away in the last weeks, and we just missed out on the last day.

We've not seen the same with Warburton, we are incredibly consistent, with losses usually followed up by a run of good performances & results. Above all he's taken a lot of unfancied players and put them together in a pacy and attractive attacking team, that can control games and get results against much bigger clubs.

For a team on our budget and experience to get to this position in the league is an absolutely fantastic achievement, regardless of whether we fall away or not at the end of the season. Our aim this year was just to stay up, and we have pretty much guaranteed that already, anything else this season is just a bonus! If we actually are in the play offs at the end of the year, it would be an amazing achievement.

All this from a manager in his first ever management job. I firmly believe with one or two more players (namely a quality striker, we miss so many chances its unreal), we would be even higher up than we currently are.

 

[HertsWolf]

With all respect, I don't think Warburton has actually achieved much at all, at the moment.
He did a decent job at getting Brentford promoted last season, but the squad was pretty much Rosler's, so he carried on his good work.
If he gets them into the play-offs come the end of the season, that will be his big achievement.

That's unfair. Getting Brentford into the top six of the Championship is a massive achievement. Every player who has signed for them this last year could have had a choice of a "bigger" "more fashionable" club, but Warburton and the club have got them, moulded them into a team and won games. Personally, I reckon the likes of Brentford, Bournemouth are the antithesis to a lot of the shit in football right now.

There is irony in this recent Warburton Brentford fuck-up. Until a few months ago, Brentford could have issued a press release offering free virgins and holidays in Mauritius to the reader, photos of the Chairman baring his arse at a pub and announcing a ground-share with East Fife and no-one would have even noticed.
But now they've arrived at the fleshy, diamond-encrusted vajazzled portals of the Premiership and are a few months away from the big time (and who knows, maybe an Asian yogurt tycoon or billionaire fishmonger as owner) and the whole world is scrutinising every presser for the slightest typo or non-PC statement.

Welcome to the big time, Bees. Now let's see if there are any takers for Eddie Howe being seen buying "Rick Stein's Spain" and the AA Guide to Barcelona in his local Waterstones.

 

[Dazza]

Looks like he is going at the end of the season according to Sky Sports.

 

[PDS]

Can we have Jake Bidwell end of the season then?

 

[AFCB_Mark]

All very odd. Really want Brentford to do well (next Saturday aside perhaps) and remain in the mix, it's great for clubs like us. Can't help fearing that this will see them fall away now.

 

[mpmbee]

Yeah I suspect our season is over now. What a shame this has all happened.

 

[markwwfc1992]

There's already a Mark Warburton thread a little further down the page. On topic I think Brentford would be crazy to get rid of him.

 

[MagpieBee]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footb...ford-expected-announce-mark-warburton-5175877

Seem pretty confident in this article that he's gone. Local journos haven't said anything yet, so I'd assume it's BS, but considering the club keep pushing back the date of when they will make a statement, you have to assume they are trying to sort out something more than just language of support...

 

[Ibby]

This is pathetic from the club, make a bloody announcement already.

 

[Millersfan]

Absolute joke that. So basically they're getting fired for not spending money? That's a new one.

 

[yellow]

Sky Sports News HQ ‏@SkySportsNewsHQ 4m4 minutes ago
BREAKING: Brentford manager Mark Warburton to leave club at the end of the season. More on #SSNHQ

footballs gone maaaad

 

[JustinQPR]

Madness.

Wouldn't mind seeing him at Loftus Road!

 

[markwwfc1992]

Wonder what decision was behind it, surely cant be performance related?

 

[SamScfc]

Ridiculous, shows what is wrong with football. I gave Brentford credit for appointing a manager from within, and an English manager, and it paid off, look at them now in the play off hunt and they get rid of him, for what, has this even been explained yet? If they've sacked him then I hope they go down next season.