A year ago, Brentford were not just flirting with relegation but having to concede that it was a genuine possibility. That bears recollecting because this is a club that has never really done basic “survival mode” since they returned to the top flight in 2021 for the first time in 74 years.
It is fortunate that along with recruitment, they also do introspection better than most. The summer was a time to reflect on that near miss and make sure it could not happen again.
Mark Flekken treads that line between self-flagellation and self-improvement with particular care. In 2024-25, he has made more saves (108) than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League.
Yet his first six months in English football were not easy, something he put down to “life on the pitch and outside the pitch, personal life, big changes with the family and the kids”.
“I took me a while longer than I would have guessed, or hoped for,” he tells The i Paper.
“But that’s all part of the process I would say. It’s also, if a player like me is open about a situation like that or a process like that, people outside of the club can see that it isn’t the easiest job to change countries like that and be on your top performance level from the first game forward.
“Of course I wish it differently that I would have been on my peak level right from the start, but I think that was an natural process. It just took a little bit longer than I had hoped.”
The struggle was at least collective, Brentford decimated by injuries and by the eight-month suspension for Ivan Toney. That has perhaps made thriving after Toney’s departure to Saudi Arabia a little easier, just as Brentford were able to cope with losing David Raya – the man Flekken replaced – and Christian Eriksen in their two previous seasons.
For the first time in the Premier League, they have two players – Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa – hitting double figures for goals, and that is with three months of the season left. Alongside Mikkel Damsgaard, Mbeumo has been nominated for Player of the Year at the London Football Awards (LFAs), which will partner with The i Paper at Wembley on 27 February.
“If you talk about Bryan, together with Wissa and Kevin Schade the big threat up front they are scoring the goals we need,” Flekken says.
“Mikkel is doing his part very well in midfield. I think that some of the pieces we were missing last year because of injuries and being out of rhythm fell together in the right place this year.
“Especially the games at home, the team was in a really good way, the performances away from home were good – top from time to time, but we just couldn’t get around collecting the points we needed, or deserved.”
By Christmas, Brentford had won the most home wins of any Premier League side, unbeaten at the Gtech until 21 December. Only Nottingham Forest, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham have beaten them there since.
“A lot of the big clubs come with a lot of respect to our games against them, especially at our ground,” Flekken insists.
“If you see that the respect they have, the work ethic they put in to play against us, that has something to do with respect as well. That definitely means they see us as a good side in this league.”
Any growing pains from moving into the new ground in 2020 have faded. Griffin Park was home for 116 years but the ethos at the club is that support is a “two-way street”, Flekken says.
“It can make a difference in the stands if the people supporting the club feel supported by the club as well. If the club gives more, you get more back from the fans.”
The “Bee A Hero” campaign is also nominated for an LFA Community Award. It is part of the same thinking: Brentford raise awareness of the need for more blood donors in the area around the club, and in turn it becomes the centre of its community.
Thomas Frank, up for Manager of the Year, likewise puts that sense of the communal into his recruitment. Despite their reputation for data-driven scouting, Flekken reveals, one of the first considerations is what a player is like “character wise”.
“How does somebody fit in the group? How do we keep that going on, what we have in this club? They are doing that very well, seeking out the right people. To talk about myself even, in that case where I needed six months to come to my performance level where I wanted to be, they still keep the trust, keep believing, keep saying they brought me in for a reason. Hopefully now I’m showing what that reason was.”
Now 31, the Netherlands international has two young children who came with him from SC Freiburg in Germany in 2023. The city, he points out, hosts just 250,000 people. “That’s a big difference,” he says of London. “But you’ve got everything in this city, everything you can possibly imagine. Besides that, the club is brilliant – I’m enjoying life here.”
Any complaints? “Don’t mention the food! Joking!”
Flekken found form partly thanks to the help of a sports psychologist, but also with a little of Frank’s guidance. “He kept believing in me. The way he behaves with his players, the way he coaches, the way he wants to play football, it just all fits together.
“He is always really optimistic and always tries to see the positive things, even when there are a lot of negative ones as well. But he is always pushing forward, trying to get the best out of you, giving a lot but also demanding a lot, and that’s a really good balance.”
Flekken returned after a side strain to keep a clean sheet in the victory over West Ham and says he is “feeling good… like nothing happened”. That means he is back in goal for the business end of the season and to see hopes of a top-half finish.
“I’m never a person that looks too far ahead because that’s something you can’t control yet,” he says.
“But if we talk this season, if we are able to secure a place in the top 10 first, then we’ve played a really good season. If we can achieve that, maybe eye a little bit for those European places.
“For the seasons coming after that, it’s more about keeping up that level, not dropping down performance-wise like we had last year, because the guys played some really good seasons before that.
“That all comes down to whatever injuries you get along the road, rhythm, there’s a lot of factors. Hopefully everybody stays healthy in the next few seasons and we can push as one big team.”
For further information and to purchase tickets to the London Football Awards 2025 at Wembley Stadium on 27 February, visit https://londonfootballawards.org/
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