Brentford captain Pontus Jansson has joked that he no longer knows how to rally his team-mates after using up all his motivational speeches ahead of their Championship play-off final against Fulham.
Jansson revealed young French winger Bryan Mbeumo rallied the troops before their semi-final second-leg victory over Swansea, which brought the curtain down on Griffin Park - and kept Brentford on course for the Premier League.
That was the latest in a string of defining matches for Thomas Frank’s side and ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Wembley, Jansson said: ‘I think I’m running out of speeches because I’ve had so many the last couple of weeks so I don’t know what to say anymore.
‘Bryan Mbeumo had a really, really good speech before the game against Swansea in the warm-up. It was really emotional and that gave us a lot of energy so hopefully someone else can come up with a good speech on Tuesday.’
Mbeumo is part of Frank’s ‘BMW’ forward line alongside Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma. Between them, they have amassed 59 goals and 19 assists to fire Brentford towards promotion.
‘All of them will play for big, big clubs, hopefully with us in the Premier League,’ said Jansson, who believes Mbeumo, only 20, could prove the pick of the bunch.
‘Bryan is probably going to be better than both of them... he has such talent,’ he added.
Tom Cairney, meanwhile, says he would happily sacrifice Fulham’s pretty playing style to secure a return to the Premier League.
Fulham scrapped past Cardiff in a tense semi-final and their captain said: ‘It was just about getting over the line. No one remembers the performance.... they just see that Fulham have got to Wembley. I would take another one of those performances if it would mean winning next Tuesday.’
