It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Michael Kayode wants continental football; whether Brentford can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Marcelo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Michael Kayode was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Three points for Brentford, 2‑1 the final word against Wolverhampton in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Brentford training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brentford this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Brentford can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.