30 Jul 2026 19:02:45
So we are looking to sign a Gana replacement and are still looking. Brentford let Henderson leave mutually and then today go out and buy a defensive midfielder Mamadou Sangare for £41 million. No haggling over s*** deposits with terms over payments, they just pay what the club valued him.
Just putting it out to more with a bit more nous on transfers, Blues. Is this the same Mamadou Sangare from Lens we have watched for almost 2 years without making an approach or was it another Sangare.
30 Jul 2026 22:44:57
I haven't seen us linked with Mamadou Sangare before. I remember us being linked with Ibrahim (Forest) , whilst he was at PSV.
Quality signing by Brentford that.
31 Jul 2026 07:42:14
Brentford would have done negotiations with the club. It may have been going on for weeks.
Buying players is like a jigsaw puzzle. You've got a load of pieces missing and you're trying to fit them all in. Every club will have a budget to spend, but if you overspend on one then you may not have enough for another. You may think, like with O'Brien and wrongly in my opinion, we have someone who can do a job, so you sacrifice that purchase.
If we had just three or four players that we needed, you could go out there and be more aggressive. However, like last year, we've got 6 or 7 that we need. That means we've got to be more careful and negotiate more in the market.
Hopefully next year we're in a better place and we can approach the market with gusto.
31 Jul 2026 08:24:01
Henderson would not have been a move in place weeks ago, and Brentford's midfield is not one that needs restructuring to a £41 million transfer recruit, so my thoughts are Henderson is leaving. They go to a target they may have had but with no need to purchase, but when needed they have the deal over the line, unlike us dithering at every move.
It took us 6 weeks to agree £18 million for Hackney. I know which transfer recruitment team I would like doing negotiations for us.
31 Jul 2026 08:37:22
Alanc, it's fair to say none of us know what actually happens with transfers of our own club let alone the transfers of others. You're dealing with perception here and that can mislead any of us.
31 Jul 2026 08:54:24
Who said we are after a replacement? Garner will probably do his job, Hackney and Dewberry Hall, with Tim as back up. Papers make stuff up, as we have all witnessed. I've actually stopped clicking on some sites now. They just spout utter rubbish.
31 Jul 2026 09:55:27
You are right. We should not need a replacement for Idrissa. I often thought playing him and JG didn't work and was too defensive.
31 Jul 2026 10:36:01
Isn't Hackney the Gana replacement?
31 Jul 2026 11:54:59
We also have Harrison Armstrong too.
31 Jul 2026 13:34:58
None of the players we have can replicate the work that Gana did. We need a proper defensive midfielder. Hackney is a deep-lying playmaker but his defensive work is not even in the same ballpark as Gana's.
Jimmy is the closest thing we have but I think it takes away from the more useful parts of his game.
31 Jul 2026 18:32:34
Why did we buy Hackney if to not play him in the middle with Garner? I'd be disappointed if he benched him and only brings him on in the 85th minute to give Jimmy a break. Or if he switches Garner to RB to play Hackney in CM.