5 key men who helped Brentford reach the Premier League
Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo’s goals were backed up by captain Pontus Jansson and influential pair Rico Henry and Josh Dasilva.
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Brentford have secured promotion to the Premier League after beating Swansea 2-0 in the Championship play-off final.
Here, we pick out five key men for the Bees next season.
Rico Henry
Highly-rated full-back who has previously been linked with a switch to Southampton An injury towards the end of the season hindered Brentford’s automatic promotion bid, such is his impact down the left flank in attack and defence.
Josh Dasilva
Another player who got injured at the wrong time, seeing his season come to a premature end in February. A powerful, goalscoring midfielder who was converted from a striker while in Arsenal’s youth ranks, Dasilva has five caps for England Under-21s.
Pontus Jansson
Experienced Sweden defender signed from Leeds for an undisclosed fee in 2019, after asking to join the Bees, and was immediately appointed club captain. A commanding, old-school defender with a fiery streak, Jansson recovered from ankle surgery in March to lead Brentford’s promotion bid.
Ivan Toney
The Championship’s top scorer with a record haul of 31 goals before further strikes in the play-off semi-final and final, Toney has proved incredible value for his club-record £6million transfer fee from Peterborough. Tall, strong and with a ruthless eye for goal, the former Newcastle youngster is desperate to prove he can make it in the top flight.
Bryan Mbeumo
The last remaining cog of the much-vaunted ‘BMW’ strikeforce following the departures of Said Benrahma and Ollie Watkins last summer, skilful frontman Mbeumo has provided valuable support to Toney as well as chipping in with eight goals of his own. Had a hand in both first-half goals against Swansea.