Au revoir: Said Benrahma

Brentford will be without Said Benrahma ahead of the visit of Coventry after his departure from the club was confirmed on Friday night.

The Algerian has signed for West Ham in a loan deal with an obligation to buy, which will bring his two-year stay with the Bees to an end.

Rumours of his exit have been relentless since the West London side failed to get promoted at the last hurdle, having lost to Fulham in the Play-Off final. Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Chelsea have all been linked with him but it’s West Ham that have won the race to sign him.

Brentford will, of course, welcome the £30 million fee they will receive altogether, for a player they bought for £2.7milliion just over two years ago, having also sold Ollie Watkins to Aston Villa for a similar fee.

Much has been said about the smart business that the club do in the transfer market, buying players at a low cost, developing them and selling for a big profit. Scott Hogan, Andre Gray and Neal Maupay are just some of the names that have taken similar footsteps.

Despite losing their star players regularly, Brentford’s performances on the field have not changed and have been overachieving with the resources they have compared to other teams in the league.

Benrahma is however going to be a big miss. He scored 17 goals and assisted ten times last season. It’s not just the huge outlet that the Bees will miss. When the tough got going last season, with opponents playing deep blocks, it was often Benrahma who came up with the goods.

His dribbling, shooting and the ability to do something from nothing were second to none in the Championship last season, so much so that opponents at times tailored their game plan to stop him which meant there were spaces for his teammates to exploit.

Once the ball was out of his feet, facing the opponent’s goal, the Brentford faithful would often get out of their seat in expectation that Benrahma would do something magical. More often than not, he didn’t disappoint.

With the departures of Benrahma and Watkins, new signings Ivan Toney, who already has three goals to his name and Iranian Saman Ghoddos as well as the fit-again Sergio Canos, will have big shoes to fill if the Bees are to get promoted this season.

Brentford will be hoping to kickstart their season ahead of the visit of Coventry. They come into this game off the back of a shocking 4-2 loss to Preston, having led 2-0 at halftime. They’ve won just one from their opening four this season.

Coventry have also had a slow start to the campaign winning just the one game from the first four. That win however did come against a West London side, having beaten QPR 3-2. As far as good omens come, it’ll be one that the Sky blues will hope continues.

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