Brentford owner Matthew Benham has revealed the bargain deals that got away, including missed moves for Eberechi Eze, Omar Marmoush, Michael Olise and Mykhailo Mudryk.
Matthew Benham has revealed some of the transfer misses he still thinks about at Brentford, admitting the club came close to signing a series of players who later soared in value and reputation. Speaking at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference to Men In Blazers, Brentford’s majority owner said the Bees could have landed Eberechi Eze and Omar Marmoush for a combined fee of around £4 million, while also detailing how moves for Michael Olise and Mykhailo Mudryk slipped away.
Eze and Marmoush among the biggest misses
Benham’s starkest admission centred on two deals Brentford did not complete before the pair went on to establish themselves at a far higher level.
“We could have signed Eberechi Eze for £4m I think in 2019,” he said. “We could also have signed Omar Marmoush on a free about three years ago.” He added: “We could have signed both about £4m combined.”
That is the kind of hindsight every recruitment department has to live with, but it is still a striking reflection from a club so often praised for getting value out of the market. Brentford’s rise has been built in part on identifying talent before prices move beyond their reach, which makes Benham’s candour around Eze and Marmoush all the more notable.
Mudryk and Olise also got away
Benham said the summer Brentford were promoted to the Premier League brought two more near misses. One was Mudryk, who he said Brentford were “quite close” to signing for a fee of about €20 million before the winger’s eventual move for far more. The other was Olise, whose scouting Benham described as “unbelievable, out of this world”.
In Olise’s case, Benham explained that the transfer itself was not the only issue. Brentford, newly promoted and still adjusting to the financial landscape of the Premier League, were put off by the cost of the deal around it.
“The agent fee for that one was so insanely high that we stepped away,” he said. Benham added that there was part of the club thinking that, when combined with the transfer fee, it was “kind of not too bad”, but the agency cost on its own forced Brentford to walk away.
A rare insight into Brentford’s transfer thinking
Benham’s comments offered an unusually direct look at the margins Brentford operate within, even after promotion to the top flight. His wider point was that no recruitment model, however strong, can eliminate misses altogether.
“There’s always going to be ones you miss out on,” he said.
That line will be familiar to anyone who has followed Brentford’s approach under Benham. The club’s data-led model has helped it uncover value repeatedly, but this was a reminder that some of the most revealing stories are often the deals that never quite got done.