Bees Captain Jake Bidwell believes that the Brentford squad are in a good place to challenge next season after a year of transition and adapting at Griffin Park. The Bees finished ninth in the Sky Bet Championship last season despite injuries to key players and a number of new signings needing time to adapt to the demands of English football. Now a year down the line and with another season of second tier football under the players' belts, The Bees skipper feels they are in position to push on again next season.
“There have been periods where we haven’t done as well as we would have liked but if you look at the bigger picture, to finish ninth is not bad at all,” said Jake, speaking to Bees Player after the club’s Player of the Year awards dinner. “It gives us a good building block to move forward into next season with. In terms of playing at this level we are still relatively inexperienced. For people like myself, Harlee Dean, and Sam Saunders it is only our second season. We have got another year under our belts and we will all be better off for that moving forward. All the lads that are in are settled now. There were a lot of changes in the summer but the lads that are here are a year further down the line and there shouldn’t be any of the iffy start that we had this season. If we had started this season a bit better then we probably would have been in the Play-Offs. We want to build on this season and go one step further next season.”
Despite his young age, Jake turned 23 in March, the left-back was handed The Bees captaincy at the start of the season, something he was very proud to do.
“It has been an honour to be captain,” said Jake. “It hasn’t been easy at times and you look at yourself a bit more thinking if there is anything more you could be doing when things aren’t going well. There are a lot worse things to say than you have captained a side that has come ninth in the Sky Bet Championship and I have enjoyed it in the main.”
Jake joined from Everton in November 2011 with Brentford sitting in the League One mid-table. Now more than four years, and 200 appearances, later The Bees are an established Championship outfit and Jake feels there is still more progress within the squad.
“The game that I made my debut in there were 4,000 fans at Griffin Park, now it is over 10,000 most weeks,” said Jake. “That shows the way that the club is going and that the lads are producing on the pitch. If that keeps on going there is only one place that we are going to end up. There is a feel good factor around the club after the end to the season and that gives us a lot of confidence going into next season. Hopefully we can pick up where we left off this season.”