BUY LOW, SELL HIGH

The Bees have made massive profits on young players in recent seasons – co- director of football Phil Giles explains the thinking behind their best recruits

NEAL MAUPAY Bought: £ 1.6m Sold: £ 20m

“We wanted a No. 9 and preferred a young one who we could develop. He’d scored lots of goals on loan with Brest in the French second division – it’s a good league and it’s physical, so you can adapt to the Championship. Neal also has an edge, a self- confidence – he’s a nice guy off the pitch, but you don’t want to play against him! We were potentially too nice as a team, a bit soft... so we needed that.”

OLLIE WATKINS Bought: £ 1.8m Sold: £ 28m

“You could see he had big potential at Exeter – the raw physical qualities, the way he could take the ball on the half turn and go past a player. We ummed and ahhed, because we weren’t sure where we were bringing him in to play – we didn’t see him as an out- and- out wide player, though that’s where he played at first, or a No. 9. But we saw potentially a good player.”

SAID BENRAHMA

Bought: £ 2.7m Sold: £ 25m

“Another Ligue 1 player who’d been on loan in the second division. Our scouts saw the skill he had, and he was more available than we thought he would be. With a skilful player like Said, there’s maybe a subconscious bias that he’s not a team player, but he worked unbelievably hard for us. He’d sprint to win the ball back, and really developed.”

IVAN TONEY Bought: £ 5m Current value: est. £ 35m

“We tried to sign him in January 2020 because we had Bryan Mbeumo, Watkins and Benrahma, but not hugely deep back- up. We thought he could help us, and if we got promoted, he could play in the Premier League – a lot of our recent recruits have been players we’d buy in the Premier League anyway. At Peterborough, he was head and shoulders above everyone in League One. A lot of our best signings have been from League One and League Two.”