How savvy Brentford have made £151m profit from transfers in last six years through sales like Watkins and Benrahma
PREMIER LEAGUE newbies Brentford have caught the eye with a string excellent performances against the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.
But things are almost as impressive off the pitch, as Brentford boast a whopping £151MILLION in profit from transfers in the last six years alone.
The Bees have forged a reputation for being a selling club, with Brentford consistently seen their best players come and go.
But rather than being rocked by losing their prized assets, the club have thrived – proven by their promotion to the Premier League for the 2021-22 campaign – their first top-flight season since 1947.
A selected number of player sales from the last six years shows the club have splashed out a combined £22m on signings.
But what’s staggering is those players have been sold on for a mammoth £173.7m altogether.
It works out at a total profit of £151.2m from player sales.
Ollie Watkins’ £30m move to Aston Villa in the summer of 2020 bagged the Bees over £24m in profit, having recruited the forward from League Two Exeter for just a little over £6m.
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Said Benrahma is another player that landed a hefty profit for Thomas Frank’s side.
Having been recruited from Nice for a meagre £1.5m in 2018, the Algerian was sold on to West Ham for just shy of £21m in 2020 – another enormous £19m in profit.
So in the summer of 2020 the Bees lost their two best players for a combined £51m.
Yet they still managed to gain promotion to the Premier League the following season with the play-off final victory over Swansea.
The Bees hit the jackpot with Neal Maupay, selling the Frenchman to Brighton for £20m in 2019, having signed him for less than £2m a mere two years earlier.
That’s another £18m profit to add to the tally.
And B team graduate Chris Mepham was sold to Bournemouth in 2018/19 for £12m, having progressed through the ranks in West London.
The club are currently playing in their second season at the new state of the art Community Stadium, which cost £71m to build.
So the profit accumulated from those four players alone is enough to pay for their ENTIRE stadium.
Ex-Brentford boss Dean Smith was a manager who enjoyed raiding his former club while he was in charge at Villa Park.
As well as Watkins, he also paid £12m to sign Ezri Konsa in 2019, with the centre-back having only joined Brentford from Charlton for £2.6m the year before.
Scott Hogan was another who swapped Brentford for Villa, handing the West Londoners a tidy £8.6m in profit in the process.
The striker joined from Rochdale in 2014 for the tiny sum of £900,000, but was sold on for £9.5m two years later, despite suffering two horror ACL injuries.
Elsewhere Moses Odubajo, John Egan, Harlee Dean and Daniel Bentley were all snapped up on free transfers, but shifted on for a combined £12.5m in the last six years.
Yet despite having the knack of selling on their best players, Frank still guided the club to the promised land last year for the first time in 74 years.
They look like sticking around too, and despite the 3-1 defeat to Manchester United last time out, the Bees are sitting comfortably in 14th – ten points outside the relegation zone.
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