Bees 'pretty relaxed' on futures of Wissa and Mbeumo
In the second part of a wide-ranging BBC Sport interview with Brentford director of football Phil Giles, he answered a number of questions around the futures of key Bees players:On Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo: "I have a lot of insight but that doesn't mean I will talk about it! No, in general, if I was looking at a striker or a wide player as another club then they have to be on a shortlist, you would imagine. But the number of clubs that can sign them is a small number worldwide so time will tell if a club has that need or requirement. At the moment, we are pretty relaxed."On if they can be retained by offering new contracts: "Yes, what I'd say is there is always a very good chance of players staying. In an ideal world, there is always a chance we can keep our best players, that's the dream. When we were a Championship club, we had Ollie Watkins, he signed a contract with us at one point. We said we would convert him from a wide player to a striker - we did that and he was successful - and if we didn't get promoted we would look to sell him. We were proactive to go out and sell him, we made a promise to him and we needed cash at that time because it was Covid. But now we are a Premier League club we don't need to sell Wissa, Mbeumo and others. There is more chance that a player will stay for that reason but if a big club makes a really good offer for our players then we have to look at it. We need to be good sellers, then use the money to invest wisely."On if players like Igor Thiago and Fabio Carvalho could replace them if they left: "Yes, that's exactly how we want to do it, really, to have the players already on board when we sell our players. Igor Thiago was bought in February 2024 because Ivan Toney was leaving. He has been unlucky with injury but the other players have come in and done well. Even at left-back, the solution to Rico Henry missing football was sitting under our noses all along - Keane Lewis-Potter has done an unbelievable job to the extent he is maybe an even better player at left-back. If an existing player can take their place, it is better for them and us."Take in part one of the interview below.
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