Qualifying for Europe would be a ‘huge step’ for Brentford, says Thomas Frank
The Bees sit ninth in the Premier League table ahead of this weekend’s clash with struggling Wolves.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Thomas Frank believes leading Brentford into Europe would be a “huge step” for the club as he calls for maximum effort from his players in the Premier League run-in.
The Bees have enjoyed a fine campaign but have not won in four games and sit ninth in the table heading into Saturday’s visit to struggling Wolves.
Despite just two wins from their last nine matches, Brentford are still on course to better their performance last season, where they finished 13th in their first year in the Premier League.
The Europa Conference League also offers a potential route into European football for the first time in the club’s history, something Frank knows would be a huge achievement as he aims to keep his squad focused on the final weeks of the season.
“It would be huge, a huge step,” he said.
“It will be a big thing but I don’t want to speak about it until if and when that should happen. Right now it is about Wolves.
“This is our second season in the Premier League, so if every single training and match isn’t unbelievably exciting and you want to do everything then we have the wrong group of players.
“That is not to say that we can’t lose the next eight, this is the Premier League so it can happen.
“What we need to be absolutely sure of is that we perform and put maximum effort into every single game, starting on Saturday against Wolves, and I am convinced that this group of players will perform.
“We are in the top half of the table and a top-10 finish would be unbelievable if that could happen.
“We just want to end as high as possible, go into every game trying to win it. There should be plenty of reasons for us to keep going.”
Brentford travel to face a Wolves side battling relegation on the back of a 2-1 loss at home to Champions League-chasing Newcastle.
They may be safe in midtable and Frank’s hopes of a top-half finish could easily be achieved, but he admits it is a challenge to face teams with so much at stake.
“For some clubs, depending on where they are in their life cycles or what you could call the life-cycle of the club,” he said.
“It’s our second season in the Premier League. We should be fighting for every single point and every single position because the higher we end, the bigger the achievement for us.
“It’s clear that, for example, Newcastle, if they finish fifth it still would be an amazing season for them because I don’t think anyone expected that before the season. That is a massive credit to Eddie Howe and his coaching staff and the Newcastle players.
“But I think still they would be a little bit disappointed if they don’t finish fourth because they can see it, they can smell it and they’ve done so well.
“Maybe teams that are fighting to avoid relegation, there is a different pressure that maybe makes them fight even more.
“But hopefully we are in that fine place where we want to achieve something and we can go in with a little bit more freedom but still come with everything and all the effort, so maybe that gives us something.”
Brentford announced on Friday that defender Pontus Jansson, 32, will leave the club at the end of his contract this summer and rejoin Malmo, where he began his career before taking in spells with Torino, Leeds and the Bees.