Frank insists Bees would have stayed up without Eriksen

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Thomas Frank has criticised those who suggest that Christian Eriksen was the reason for Brentford staying in the Premier League last season.

Eriksen played 11 times for the Bees after signing in January, notching four assists, but rejected the offer of a new deal with the club to sign for Manchester United.

Brentford won seven of the games Eriksen played in but Bees boss Frank insists his side would have achieved Premier League safety without the 30-year-old.

“I think that the people that say that Christian kept us in the Premier League either don’t know what they are talking about or are very single minded, if I’m very harsh,” Frank said.

“Obviously he’s a top player. Obviously he helped us. I’m convinced, and there will be always an argument, that of course we would have stayed in the Premier League anyway if you look at our start.

“You need to take into consideration two things. One, we had a lot of injuries. The day he stepped in the building was when David (Raya) played again, Ivan (Toney) played again, Rico Henry played again, (Christian) Norgaard played again.

“All our key players played and we were fit, more or less, until the end of the season.

“Two, we actually consistently performed quite well throughout the season, even in the bad patch. So those are two reasons why I’m convinced that we still would have been good, just maybe not as fluid, maybe not as good looking as we did with Christian.”