Brentford show where a better run Charlton could be

In today's Financial Times football (and many other things) guru Simon Kuper reviews Alex Duff's book Smart Money: the Rise and Fall of Brentford FC published by Constable at £22.

Here are some excepts from his review:

'One day in 2005, when little Brentford Football Club were threatened with administration, a man named Matthew Benham phoned the club offices asking how he could help. He ended up making an anonymous loan. Benham, an unflamboyant professional gambler who grew up supporting Brentford, went on to use statistical insights to lift the west London club up the divisions to the Premier League.

Founded in 1889, Brentford were for almost all their history a suburban neighbourhood club. They drew their support from the white working-class streets around Griffin Park, their ground until 2020, which had a pub on each corner. They had a brief heyday in the then first division either side of the second world war, marked by an ill-judged tour of Nazi Germany in 1937. After relegation in 1947, they went through a 70-year lean patch. In the 1960s they nearly merged with Queens Park Rangers.

To this day, Brentford lease a training ground from the 700-year-old Mercers’ Company, which channels the proceeds — in a very British story — to the expensive private school St Paul’s. The club’s seemingly permanent lack of potential was nicely summed up in a chant by QPR fans in 2018: “You’re just a bus stop in Hounslow.”

But by then, Benham was already working his quiet magic. Benham was raised near Eton school, where his parents were teachers. He began watching Brentford because it was the nearest professional football club, only 17 miles away. He studied physics at Oxford, then “became a star derivatives trader” in the City, before going into sports gambling. 

There was money to be made here, because bookmakers were miscalculating the odds of football matches. Quants (data analysts) had developed more sophisticated methods to assess the true form of clubs. They looked beyond results, which were skewed by chance — a ball that rolled in off the post, or didn’t.

Once his loan to Brentford morphed into a full-blown takeover of the club, he set his quant employees a new task: as well as predicting the results of matches, they would try to win them, for Brentford. They identified undervalued players, and developed new tactics.

One of many inefficiencies they spotted in football was a neglect of the set pieces — principally corners and free-kicks — that produce about 30 per cent of all goals. Many clubs barely practised them. To Benham, this was as if a student didn’t bother preparing 30 per cent of an exam, so Brentford hired an Italian set-piece coach. Through superior intelligence, they routinely beat richer opponents. 

[Of course, other clubs have now woken up to this and Liverpool are using AI to analyse and advise on corners as I discussed recently].

They also managed to make a profit from transfers while getting promoted to the Premier League. Today Benham, whose wealth is estimated at $300mn, is the Premier League’s second-poorest owner, yet his club are likely to survive again this season.'

Another Charlton starlet in the top flight

My partner laughs when we are watching a Premier League game, which she thinks is the only place football is played (apart from La Liga) and I say, 'former Charlton player'.

When Alfie Doughty was 18 he was sent on loan from the Addicksto Kingstonian in the Isthmian League. He spent around 10 weeks playing in the seventh tier of English football before returning to his boyhood club.

Five and a half years on, and Doughty has played in the fifth tier in the National League with Bromley, experienced relegation from the Championship with Charlton and struggled to get into the team at Stoke City.

Now he is 24 and has not only helped Luton Town get promoted to the Premier League but has become one of their standout players in England’s top flight.

Doughty spent 15 years at Charlton’s academy, coming through with Liverpool defender Joe Gomez and Aston Villa centre-back Ezri Konsa. His aim has always been to play in the top division and he is doing it with aplomb.

His versatility and trustworthiness have meant he has been relied on both sides of the pitch at wing-back, and heading into their match with Burnley, no Luton player had created more chances than Doughty.  A high number of those chances have arrived from set pieces, with Doughty in charge of free kicks and corners. Only West Ham United midfielder James Ward-Prowse has created more chances from set pieces in the Premier League than the Luton player this season.

Doughty’s drive and deliveries are among the top reasons Luton remain in a fight to stay in the Premier League. As for Doughty, this level looks more and more like one he belongs at.

Unbeaten run continues

Charlton are 17th in League One after a 1-1 draw at Fleetwood Town, ten points clear of relegation zone leaders Cheltenham, although they have two games in hand.

Alfie May's 25th goal of the season was not enough for Charlton as Fleetwood hit back late to earn a 1-1 draw .

May scored from the penalty spot but substitute Ryan Graydon rescued a point for the hosts with six minutes left, rounding keeper Harry Isted before tucking home from a tight angle.

The Cod Army started strongly with Xavier Simons denied by a super save from Isted. Former Addick Jayden Stockley also headed inches wide, still with less than 10 minutes played.

The hosts continued to press, Brendan Wiredu and Gavin Kilkenny also going close.

The Addicks' first decent chance came after 36 minutes when Macaulay Gillesphey drilled narrowly over the top.

The visitors went ahead in first-half added time when May tucked home a penalty after he had been felled by charm merchant Shaun Rooney.

Fleetwood went close soon after the restart when Bosun Lawal saw a well-struck shot saved by Isted. Wiredu also headed wide from Phoenix Patterson's cross.

At the other end Thierry Small's effort was saved by Jay Lynch, before Graydon went on to salvage a point for the hosts with time running out.

Top role for former Charlton manager?

 

Alan Pardew, 62, is among those standing in the election to succeed Howard Wilkinson as the chairman of the League Managers Association (LMA).

Now 80, Wilkinson is standing down at the end of the season after 34 years leading the organisation he helped to establish. Eight people, including both male and female candidates, have been nominated for the position and the LMA’s 680 members will send ballot papers next week and have four weeks to vote.

Pardew’s pitch includes that he has played and managed at every level, and that he wants to promote more inclusion of ethnic minority coaches.

No doubt he will not mention that he screwed up big time at Charlton.

How can Palace match Haaland?

John Textor called for the Premier League spending rules to be relaxed — or ditched altogether — so that rich owners can pump their own money into clubs and cut the gap with the top teams.  He was speaking at the Financial Times Business and Sport summit.  He also wants a World Super League.  The facilities at Selhurst Park may be a surprise to participants.

Textor’s Eagle Football Group owns Olympique Lyonnais, RWD Molenbeek, Botafogo and is the largest shareholder in Crystal Palace. Textor said spending limits stopped ambitious clubs from upgrading their squads in the transfer market and amounted to “anti-competitive behaviour”. He cited the example of Nottingham Forest’s billionaire owner Evangelos Marinakis. Forest were charged by the Premier League earlier this year for breaching spending rules.

“Has this really been a problem, that everyone is going bankrupt? The sustainability issue is a fraudulent issue. Somebody shows up and tells Marinakis, an incredible guy in terms of resources and assets . . . and says we know you have [the money], but we’re worried about you Mr Marinakis. Don’t spend it.”

He went on to say that linking spending to revenue would merely make the Premier League less and less competitive and people would lose interest.

“I’ve got to somehow find a way to put Crystal Palace against Erling Haaland [of Manchester City]”, he said. “If you get an injury you don’t get to pull a £15mn player off the bench you’ve got to take somebody from your academy because you can’t afford to have that player on your bench. That’s not sport. Is anyone really having fun with this?”

He added: “Don’t tell me if Leicester City can do it, anybody can do it. It’s broken.”