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Ipswich looking to emulate Brentford? They could do a lot worse. And Kieran McKenna believes Brentford are a model for promoted clubs to copy in the Premier League, while insisting Ipswich have had a different route to the top light.
Under manager Thomas Frank, the Bees secured promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 2021 and finished ninth in the table the following year. Now in their fourth season, Brentford sit 13th in the league and come up against newly-promoted Ipswich on Saturday afternoon.
The Tractor Boys enjoyed back-to-back promotions to reach the top-flight for the first time in 22 years and while McKenna stressed that Ipswich are on their own path, he believes Brentford can be seen as a good example for newly-promoted clubs to learn from.
They’ve got their own model, I think everyone’s model is different, but there’s no doubt that they’ve done a fantastic job as a club and Thomas has done a fantastic job as a manager and the coaching staff with him.
I think different clubs have their own context, of course there’s things that Brentford have done well that we can take some inspiration from. On the other hand, their journey is different than ours, the season before they got promoted, they lost in the play-off final. They had a couple of years pushing at the very top of the Championship.
By the time they arrived in the Premier League, to be honest, they’re probably pretty much had their Premier League team already set.
They’ve had their own journey, our journey is very different to that with the speed of the ascent that we’ve made, but there’s no doubt they’ve done some things very well and any newly-promoted club can look at some of the things they’ve done and see it as an example.
Last night was a recall to vintage José Mourinho, wasn’t it?
There was something knowing in his box office rage against the referee, Clement Turpin, as well as his post and pre-match press conferences, in the full knowledge that millions of eyes would be on him and Fenerbahce given it was Manchester United and this iteration of Manchester United, manager under fire and all that. Mou even made a plea to return to the Premier League one day.
The contrast to Erik ten Hag’s far more placid and rather forgettable interviews couldn’t have been starker.
“I think the best thing I have to do when I leave Fenerbahce I go to a club that doesn’t play in Uefa competitions,” said Mourinho with a wink. “So if any club in England at the bottom of the table needs a manager in the next two years, I’m ready to go. I don’t want to say anything else – we played absolutely fantastic against a team that is far more superior.”
Never change, José.
“At 100mph, he had one eye on the penalty situation… and one eye on my behaviour. That’s why he’s one of the best referees in the world.”
A vintage Jose Mourinho interview 🍿🍿
🎙 @DannyJamieson pic.twitter.com/UffOyEKsqO
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 24, 2024
Lazio player reports racist abuse
Lazio winger Loum Tchaouna was substituted after being racially abused by fans during their 2-0 win at Dutch club Twente in the Europa League, the Italian club’s coach Marco Baroni said.
Frenchman Tchaouna, pictured below, was clearly incensed before being taken off in the 89th minute and imitated someone making monkey noises when explaining to the bench what had upset him.
Baroni said he was preparing to substitute Pedro but decided to take off Tchaouna after being unable to calm the 21-year-old.
“The howling at Tchaouna? Unfortunately I confirm that the player perceived this,” Baroni told Sky Sport Italia.
“It’s a subject I don’t want to expand on now, we tried to calm him down and then I substituted him because he was no longer in the emotional condition to continue. But I think the fourth official saw what happened.”
Uefa did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters about the abuse of Tchaouna sent outside normal business hours.
Lazio are one of a string of clubs sanctioned by UEFA for the racist behaviour of their supporters in European competition this season. The Serie A club were fined €45,000 (around £37,500) and will be forced to close two sections of their stadium for their next Europa League home game.
Also in the world of football this weekend, in a lovely twist of narrative, England’s women play Germany at Wembley tonight.
The friendly clash is the first meeting between the sides since the Euro 2022 final and comes JUST DAYS after England’s men’s side appointed a German, Thomas Tuchel, as manager. Of course, the Lionesses have had an overseas manager for some time and she’s done rather well.
Leah Williamson has been speaking some sense, as usual, about the situation.
Williamson said: “You can’t pick and choose when it suits us [to have a foreign coach], just based on the result. We’ve had great times with Sarina, I think she’s an honorary Brit now anyway. I know that we’ve all been very happy with Sarina.”
Preamble
Good morning and happy (nearly) weekend, football fans. Mercifully, it’s one of those more enjoyable autumn weeks that doesn’t call itself an international break and so it’s been jam-packed with juicy action. From the idiosyncratic touchline antics of peak José Mourinho in Istanbul last night, to a historic European win for Welsh minnows TNS, to all the fallout from the Champions League, which will quickly turn into domestic league buildup as the press conferences rev into gear today.
And it is a doozy of a weekend in the Premier League, to be fair. Arsenal host table-topping Liverpool – (will Bukayo Saka be fit? Probably not) – Erik ten Hag faces a somewhat tricky away trip to West Ham and the team Manchester City will put five past at the Etihad on Saturday is … checks notes … Southampton.
Myself and John Brewin will be here until the afternoon, at which time the right honourable Barry Glendenning will take over to see you through. Let’s start off with some classic Friday preview reading.