'Would be sad to see magical partnership broken up'

BBC News

22-04-2025

It has been a long wait, but Brentford finally picked up three points at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday for the first time since beating Newcastle United in early December - nine matches ago.It stretched our current run to two defeats in nine matches and continued our strong finish to the campaign.Beating Brighton also revived talk of a late push to finish in the European places, although I still think that is unlikely.Stars of the show once again were strike duo Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, who shared three goals and two assists between them.The pair have 34 Premier League goals this season, with Mbeumo on 18 and Wissa on 16.A large part of their partnership is an understanding formed by the experience of nearly three seasons playing together and a close friendship off the pitch.They apparently live next door to each other and you can see their closeness when you watch them play.Each instinctively knows where the other is, or will be, as moves build up - a telepathy which has led to several of their goals.You can also see when they celebrate goals together just what they think of each other.It will be interesting to see if they get separated in the summer with speculation already starting about their futures. Each has a contract running to 2026, with a one-year club option.While sadly it seems likely Mbeumo will go, as we have to sell one player each summer to balance the books, I honestly cannot see us letting both of them leave, unless we get offered silly money.I am sure each can be effective without the other, but it would be sad to see this magical partnership broken up.Find more from Ian Westbrook at Beesotted podcast, external