Brentford chose St Valentine’s Day to remind us why they have so many secret admirers.
First, the annual accounts were published, with turnover up and profit down but still operating well within their means as they finished ninth, broke the club transfer record three times and saw Ivan Toney capped by England.
Then, the signing of Igor Thiago, a prolific centre forward from Club Bruges, out of the blue in a £31million postscript to a subdued transfer window. Thiago will join Bees in the summer and the replacement will be in the building before the auction for Toney reaches full speed.
‘Ahead of the curve,’ said head coach Thomas Frank, as clubs of this size need to be if they are to defy gravity in the Premier League and as they invariably are, nimble in thought and light on their feet.
It remains to be seen how the 22-year-old Brazilian adapts to English football and gets on next season, but this has all the hallmarks of a classic coup by Brentford owner Matthew Benham and his recruitment team led by director of football Phil Giles and technical director Lee Dykes.
Brentford unveiled the signing of Igor Thiago on Valentine’s Day, but he will replace Ivan Toney in the summer
Thomas Frank said Brentford are ‘ahead of the curve’ and the transfer has the hallmarks of a classic Brentford coup
They had been in negotiations with Bruges over the possible signing of their teenage winger Antonio Nusa when Thiago produced a festive cascade of goals.
Starting with two against Besiktas in the Europa Conference League, he scored 18 in 12 games across two months, which included a Christmas break. He only failed to score on one appearance and, in the middle, came a searing spell of 11 in six.
Thiago, strong, robust and good in the air, has drawn comparisons to a young Romelu Lukaku. He is not exactly like Toney because his natural instinct is to run behind rather than link up play.
He was sent off for a second yellow card, in the final seconds of the Bruges derby against Cercle on Sunday.
When the proposed Nusa transfer hit a snag following a medical, Brentford were able to move quickly into an alternative deal.
Their recruitment experts had tracked Thiago out of the second tier of Brazilian football when he left Cruzeiro in March 2022, the first player sold by the club after the takeover led by club icon Ronaldo.
After an impressive spell at Ludogorets in Bulgaria, Bruges paid a club record…