BRENTFORD are on the verge of lining up a bid for Croydon Athletic striker Moses Ademola. The youngster, who has hit 19 goals so far this season for the Ryman One (South) side, has been training with the Bees for the past few weeks.

And with other clubs sniffing around too, Brentford boss Andy Scott is keen to tie up a deal for a nominal fee in the next few days.

Ademola had a trial with Charlton Athletic earlier this year, playing in a reserve team match against Crystal Palace alongside former Bees loanee Grant Basey.

He also made the last eight of Sky TV's Football Icon competition, in which rising stars compete for a contract with Chelsea FC. Ademola could be the first of at least eight new faces Scott wants to bring in this summer.

He warned his players after Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Lincoln: "I've got 12 players under contract for next season, and I want to bring eight newplayers in, so do the maths."

Scott now knows what his budget for next season will be,  and it is a slight improvement on the s1m he and former boss Terry Butcher were given last season.

But acting chief executive David Heath said he would not be putting his manager under pressure by demanding a play-off place like his predecessor, Keith Dickens, did last season.

However, Heath did say: "The new budget will enable us to compete better next season than we did this season." Included in the budget will be the cash supporter-investor Matthew Benham made available for the permanent signing of young players with the potential to earn Brentford a future profit. The agreement, which Brentford used to bring in Ryan Dickson and Nathan Elder during the January transfer window, runs for a further year before coming to an end. Elder, meanwhile, is set to miss the rest of the season after being booked in for an operation on his knee yesterday, having been carrying a cartilage injury for months.