Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe has suggested that Brentford may look to sell top scorer Ollie Watkins in the summer if they aren't promoted.

The Bees are fifth in the Championship after their emphatic 5-1 victory against Hull City at the weekend.

It was an impressive winter transfer window for Brentford, who managed to keep hold of Watkins and Said Benrahma–both of whom have been linked with Premier League moves in the past–and signed Tariqe Fosu and Shandon Baptiste from Oxford United.

Watkins has been a key part of Brentford's success so far and is the top scorer in the division at the moment–with 19 league goals to his name.

The west London club kept hold of the 24-year-old in January and, speaking to the Sky Sports EFL podcast, Hinchcliffe suggested that it was clear they were making a real promotion push.

He explained:"This is the first transfer window in 11 where Brentford haven't sold.

"It makes perfect sense. This is the way Brentford normally do things–they bring players in, they produce them, they do sell them on. Look at Romaine Sawyers and Neal Maupay.

"This January they're looking at getting promoted, so I'm sure they've spoken to Watkins, Benrahma, and Bryan Mbeumbo, and said 'stay with us, give it everything, we're going to tweak our philosophy a bit because we want to get promoted. We want you to fire us there.'

"It makes perfect sense to adjust things from January onwards."

However, Hinchcliffe added that it may be a different story in the summer.

He said: "The summer if they're a Premier League team, it is one situation. If they're still in the Championship, they might go back to how they normally run their business and maybe sell Ollie Watkins."

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The Verdict

It's tough to disagree with Hinchcliffe here.

Brentford have made a clear statement by not selling any of their key players this window and do look well set to mount a serious promotion charge.

However, with Watkins in tremendous form this season, there are likely to be many, many clubs interested in signing him this summer.

If Brentford don't get promoted, it's tough to see them keeping hold of him. It seems likely that the pull of Premier League football will prove too much for him to resist and the Bees may be happy to cash in.